Dreamchaser
by Thrippa
Summary: Sonic, then Amy and Tails, find themselves battling enemies that mysteriously vanish after the battle, and the enemies are getting stranger. Meanwhile Doctor Eggman plots with new allies.
1. Robots From Nowhere

**A/N:** Next episode of my stories. Be warned if you haven't played _Sonic Riders_ and plan to, it turns up in bits and pieces. Some people might consider this a crossover story, but I don't see it that way, since Sonic Team did the cross in at least 6 games so far. Postings on this will probably be a bit slow at first, the rough plot is sound, but the details have changes at least three times so far. But the chapters will come up as they get finalized. Oh, and just for anyone who's new to my stories - 'dokan' is the word I use for 'furry', 'anthropomorph', etc. It's just easier.

**Dreamchaser**

1. Robots from Nowhere

It was a fabulous day. There were just enough clouds overhead to keep the sun from being oppressive, and a pleasant breeze kept things from being too hot. Not that the only person on the road could feel the breeze– he was generating far more wind merely by his own passage. The speed of said passage was proof that the traveler was one of two particular people on the planet, both of whom were dokan hedgehogs - and this particular traveler was not black.

Sonic the Hedgehog ran on, barely glancing at the scenery he was passing so quickly. He gave a few skips, and occasionally leaped into the air, curling onto a ball long enough to do a midair somersault or two before landing on his feet and continuing his run. He loved to run, to let the speed of his passing rip its fingers through his quills, to feel the ground beneath him pushing back against each stride of his powerful legs. Sonic had only one competitor when it came to running power, and _he_ was an artificially created life-form.

Life had been complicated lately, with his nemesis Dr. Eggman trying to take over the world (again), and Sonic was very glad to get back to the simplicity he preferred: nothing but himself and the wind, moving as quickly as possible across the open spaces of the world. In a few days, or weeks, or perhaps next spring, he'd call Tails and check that everything was all right, but his friends were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves and each other - his presence was hardly needed. Of course, Eggman being Eggman, Sonic would probably have to abandon his own routine all too soon to deal with another of the human's grandiose plots. Sonic shook his head in rejection of that thought and upped his speed another notch, to where even thoughts couldn't keep up.

The sound of soles on pavement was less a rhythm than a constant sound, but Sonic was accustomed enough to his own running that he still heard the distant cry. He screeched to a halt in a massive cloud of dust, hopping from foot to foot to dissipate the resulting heat while he listened. There it was again: a desperate, despairing sound, not so much asking for help as knowing there was none around. _Well, they don't know that Sonic the Hedgehog is here!_ He left the road and ran towards the cry, hearing the sounds of engines, and (his pace increased) the zapping sound of lasers. He frowned. _Surely Egghead hasn't gotten his new act together this fast!_

But apparently he had. Sonic found himself on the top of a ridge, overlooking an elementary school. The side of the hill nearest the school had been cut away to provide parking for cars and buses, but apparently school wasn't in session right now. A panicked human boy crouched behind a light pole in the nearly empty lot, while a pair of sports cars charged the pole and veered away at the last moment. A small fighter jet - too small to hold even a dokan pilot - screamed around the pole in impossibly tight circles, and as Sonic came upon the scene a second jet was actually turning itself into a humanoid robot. The hedgehog gaped as the metal feet clanged onto the asphalt. "Whoa. Eggman's outdone himself this time!" The cars had made one last charge and were now themselves rearing up, as their trunks unfolded into legs and their doors opened up to become arms. The remaining plane now strafed laserbolts across the pavement, ultimately demolishing the base of the lamp and sending it crashing down on the other robots.

But not on the boy. Even as the young human cowered and covered his head, something had snatched him around the waist and yanked. And suddenly he was being stood on his feet on the grassy edge of the parking lot. Startled he looked up - and then down slightly, to stare into the emerald eyes of a blue hedgehog known world-wide as a hero. "S-s-sonic the Hedgehog?" he squeaked.

Sonic winked and said, "Hold that thought! I'll be right back!" He raced across the parking lot to meet the oncoming robots. In a neat move, he homing-attacked the closest car-robot and ricocheted himself skyward to slam into the belly of the jet racing for its escaped victim. The other two robots lost interest in the boy and tried to shoot Sonic. With a crow of delight, he avoided the attacks, and hurled himself back at the first robot he'd hit. The second bounce inactivated the thing's computer brain, and he ran a tight infinity sign around the two that were firing at him, throwing them completely off balance. The fallen jet was trying to turn into a robot where it lay, but seemed to be getting stuck mid-change. He bounced a few times on the closest pair, then aimed for the last one– but it had vanished. He grunted sharply as he landed harder than he intended and looked around, searching for his missing target. It was nowhere to be seen. For that matter, the three he'd smashed were also nowhere to be seen. He frowned at the boy who was now trotting across to join him. "Where did they go?"

The kid shrugged. "I dunno, they just all vanished. But that was sooo neat! The way you just went _bounce_ and pow! it went down, and you went _swoosh_," the busy hands made a tight figure-eight, "and the other two fell over! That was so incredibly cool; I can't wait to tell everyone at school tomorrow!"

"Thanks," Sonic grinned, but his heart wasn't entirely in it. Where had the robots gone? He scuffed around on the ground with a foot, half-hoping to either feel a metal limb or turn up some sort of trapdoor. _I know old Eggy's done some that exploded on deactivation in the past, but robots that evaporate? They can't have turned invisible, can they? No, cause I can't feel this one and they aren't still attacking. _He scratched his head, riffling the blue quills, then gave it up._ I'll find out soon enough if it's important_, he reasoned, with a mental shrug. He held out his hand to the boy. "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. Why were those things attacking you, anyway?"

"Jason Blarick," said the boy gravely, shaking the hedgehog's hand, and then went back to bubbling again. "I know who you are! You saved the world a bunch of times from Dr. Eggman and his monsters, and the aliens with Shadow the Hedgehog and everything!" He drooped a little and continued more slowly, "I think they were after me because I didn't finish my homework."

"Huh?" Sonic blinked up at the kid. "Why would Eggman's robots care if you'd done your homework or not?"

"Dunno. But it was almost just like my nightmare last night - I went into class and said I hadn't done the homework and the teacher and all my classmates turned into robots and attacked me. And when I woke up, I tried to finish it, but it was too late, so when I got to school I had to tell Ms Evans that it wasn't done. She didn't turn into a robot, she just gave me a detention, but when that was over and I came out to go home, the robots just came roaring in out of nowhere!"

Sonic looked around at the all-too-existent proof of the now-nonexistent robots' attack. "We'd probably better not hang around," he said, looking at the scorched pavement and shattered lamppost. "I don't fancy trying to explain a robot attack when there's no robotic remains to back up the story." Hero he might be, but he'd run afoul of both the law and the military before for breaking their silly rules, and he preferred to avoid a repetition.

Jason was looking around himself. "Yeah. I'm in enough trouble for having to stay late without getting accused of vandalism." He started to walk away, then hesitated. "Um, would you mind walking home with me? I- I don't know why those things attacked me, but . . . ."

"No problem," answered the blue hedgehog confidently. "But I can't really see Eggman caring whether you'd done your homework or not. Are you sure you haven't seen anything - robots in weird places, or something, or maybe found something he might want?" He was thinking 'Chaos Emerald' but didn't want to ask straight out.

"You mean, like a robot part?" The boy was clearly thinking along a different track. "I found an old spark plug, but I didn't think there was anything special about it." He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a handful of stuff: some coins, a pencil stub, a striped rock that was vaguely tooth-shaped, a gum wrapper, and the spark plug. "You think this might be what he's after?" He held out the flattened spark plug and shoved the rest of the items back in his pocket.

Sonic took it and inspected it carefully. He didn't pay a lot of attention to such things - that was Tails' interest - but it looked ordinary enough to him, similar to the ones he'd used in the Tornado back before he gave it to the fox cub. Only flatter. "It looks okay to me, but are you sure it's safe to haul around in your pocket like that?" He handed it back.

Jason looked at it a moment, then shrugged. "I don't see why not, but . . ." he tossed it into a dumpster they were passing, "there. Doctor Eggman can come dig through there for it, if he wants it."

Sonic smirked. He wasn't convinced that his rotund nemesis was after the part, but certainly there was nothing else in the boy's pocket to interest him. They both looked up as the sunlight suddenly cut out. "Oh, yuck," said Sonic. "I hate storms."

"Do you have to be anywhere tonight? You could stay at my house," Jason suggested. He started to run, and Sonic jogged alongside, hoping the dark clouds that had swept up unnoticed wouldn't break loose until they got under cover. The wind that gusted past them was suddenly much colder and stronger. "My parents wouldn't mind; they think you're a hero too."

"Well," started Sonic. He flinched as the first big drops pelted down, sinking through his fur like beads of ice. The sudden fork of lightning across the sky decided for him. "Okay," he yelled over the thunder, "as long as your folks don't mind!"

The Blaricks didn't mind. In fact, they were ecstatic to make the acquaintance of someone as important as Sonic the Hedgehog, and all but fell over themselves to make him feel welcome. Mrs. Blarick had been in Station Square when Tails had defused Eggman's missile, and inquired eagerly after the little fox. Sonic made a mental note to tell his friend, since Tails was notorious for doubting his own abilities. A little hero worship from someone he'd rescued would do him good.

In the morning, he was up early, and stayed only long enough to thank his hosts and say goodbye to the children. The fact that Eggman's robots had attacked a child for no apparent reason still bothered him. It wasn't like Eggman to put a child in harm's way unless he was so outraged he wasn't thinking straight - such as when he'd launched the missile at Station Square, in fact. Sonic raced across town back to the school, pulled out a device Tails had built to detect Eggman robots, and did a quick dash around the buildings to scout for trouble. Finding nothing, he began zipping along the city streets, doing a block by block search.

_Nothing, nada, zip. _He frowned, keeping on eye on the tiny screen as he wove his way around cars and pedestrians. _Not a blink or a bleep. He's got to be here somewhere! Unless he's found a way to hide his robots from Tails' detector? _Sonic shook his head. _It's not that he couldn't do it, but he's never bothered before. _He vaulted over a flatbed truck parked across an alley. _Eggman's always seemed to welcome the challenge of having me try to stop him, in spite of the fact that that means he always loses._ The hedgehog jumped up and ricocheted his way down another alley by bouncing from wall to wall, just for a change of pace. Still no results. He reached the edge of town and reversed direction, sliding two blocks over from the last street he'd gone down. He'd scan the whole town section by section, just to be sure.

When Jason got out of school that afternoon, Sonic was perched on the stone tiger that adorned the main entrance. A mob of excited children gathered around, and Sonic cheered himself up by answering questions and giving autographs, including to a number of teachers who came to see what the noise was about. Finally the crowd cleared, and Sonic fell in beside Jason as the boy started home. "Did you find anything out?" Jason asked eagerly.

"Not a thing," admitted Sonic. "I'm not giving up yet though, there's _got_ to be some reason those robots attacked you. I'll scout around town some more this afternoon, and tomorrow I'll try going further afield."

"Are you going to come back to my house tonight?"

Sonic grinned at the boy's excitement, but shook his head. "Nah, it's so pretty out here I figured I'll just camp out in the woods. I do it all the time, and that way if I notice anything suspicious I can run check on it without bothering anyone. And I've got pocket money enough for food."

Jason was disappointed, but the last statement diverted him. "Pocket money? You don't have pockets!"

"Kinda hard to have pockets if you don't have pants," Sonic agreed, "so I keep it here!" He slipped his fingers into his right sock and pulled out a couple of folded bills. Jason laughed, and Sonic bid him farewell.

Nothing happened that night, or turned up the next day. Sonic decided that the robots must have been a fluke, but stopped by the school one last time to be certain that the young human hadn't seen anything either. Jason insisted that he still had no idea why he'd been attacked, so the hedgehog said goodbye and raced off. He turned back though, without being quite sure why, and shadowed the boy from a distance. As Jason crossed the mostly-empty parking lot of a drug store, a small jet swooped down from nowhere and started firing at him. Simultaneously, a car roared out of an alley that Sonic would swear was too narrow for it to fit into. And before the hedgehog could react . . . a blue blur of motion swept into the lot and smashed the attacking car to bits. A second car roared up and unfolded into a robot, as both (_both? Where did the second one come from?_) planes dropped to the ground on metal feet. The blue hedgehog in the parking lot did a homing attack on one car-robot, while the blue hedgehog in the shadows stared in confusion. The only other person who could attack like that was Shadow, and the idea of Shadow painting himself blue, even as a joke, did not compute. (For that matter, the pairing of 'Shadow' with 'joke' did not compute.) _Perhaps the Doc's tried to make a new Metal Sonic? OH! _Sonic whipped out the robot detector– and became even more confused. According to the little machine, the robots down there were not only **not** Eggman robots, they weren't robots at all. In fact - he pushed a few buttons - in fact, according to Tails' device nothing was moving down there except Jason.

Sonic looked from the detector to the parking lot and back again. Then he shoved it into his non-existent pocket (a dokan trick that no human could pull off) and sped out of the cluster of trees and onto the pavement they bordered.

Jason caught the movement, gaped a moment, and yelled, "S-Sonic?" He looked in shock towards the other Sonic the Hedgehog and– just like that, the second Sonic and all the robots were gone.

The pair stood blinking and looking around warily, but the enemies stayed gone. Eventually, Jason said, "What happened?"

"I'm not sure," said Sonic. "But those weren't Eggman robots, whatever they were. Tails' little gadget said you were the only moving thing down here, and I don't think it's malfunctioning. Oh, I saw them too," he added hurriedly as the boy started to protest, "the changing robots and the, the um, other me. But they weren't really robots, and they weren't alive, either."

"Then what were they?" But Sonic had no answer for that. "You're leaving today, right?"

"Well, I had planned to, but if you're getting attacked. . ." Sonic started, but the boy cut him off.

"No, that's okay! Actually it's great! See, I had another dream last night - not about the robots, but all through the dream I was looking for something, and I never could find it. It had fallen somewhere, and gotten lost. And all sorts of other, uh, things, and other people, were helping me hunt for it, and some of them weren't very nice things. You showed up to save me from some of them. And then they all sort of followed you away to the ocean and fell in. So I figure if you go away the whatever-they-ares will follow you, but you're a hero so you can handle them!

"But you go all over the world and you must meet a lot of people, so I guess you'll forget me pretty soon."

Sonic, was caught off guard by the abrupt topic change. "Uh, yeah. Oh! No, I mean that's right about my meeting a lot of people, not about forgetting you! I won't forget you; I never forget my friends!"

But the boy was fumbling in his pocket. "So I want you to take this with you. It doesn't weigh much, and you can remember me when you look at it." He held out the tooth-shaped rock he'd had in his pocket when they'd first met.

Sonic took it and looked it over. It appeared to be an agate, or some similarly striped stone, in reddish, black, and purply tones. Now that he took a good look at it, it wasn't as tooth-shaped as he'd first thought, although it did have two protrusions like legs or roots, off of a blobby base. It was as smooth and shiny as if it had been polished. Sonic looked back up at the boy. "You really want me to take this?" Sonic wasn't one to pick up souvenirs - that really would load him down, the number of places he traveled - but this was light enough, and he could always leave it at home the next time he passed through there.

Jason nodded. "I found that the day before I met you, and that was the greatest day of my life, in spite of the robots! There was this weird guy, he looked like a wizard or something in these long purple and black robes with gold symbols all over? He was in _both_ of my dreams, now that I think about it! But anyway, I picked this up when I saw it later that day because it was sort of the same color as his robes. I sure won't forget you, but please take that and remember me, okay?"

Sonic nodded in agreement. "All right, then! I'll take it. You're sure you'll be okay getting home?"

"Yeah. You came to save me, and according to my dream, that means they'll all be after you now," he grinned. "But I'm sure you can handle it. Besides, it's Friday, so I'll just hang around the house for the weekend, in case anything happens. But I'd better get home now. G'bye!"

Sonic watched the boy run off into his neighborhood and took another look at the stone. It occurred to him that if Jason's adventures had started when the boy found the stone, then perhaps the stone had something to do with them. He sniffed it cautiously, then held it up to his ear. Nothing. He pulled out Tails' detector and scanned it every way the unit was capable of. It appeared to be . . . a small agate, albeit of slightly odd shape._ Must have been the wizard causing all the problems, then. _Snorting at his own whimsy, he tucked both items away and jogged off. If trouble did come after him, he'd deal with it then. He _was_ Sonic the Hedgehog, after all. Actually, he rather hoped it would. He liked excitement.


	2. Dreams in the Darkness

2. Dreams in the Darkness

In a dark room lit only by the glow of a computer screen and a panel of blinking lights, the man who called himself Doctor Eggman glowered at the picture of an echidna. Knuckles the Echidna was prominently featured in an article on some stupid treasure he'd found in the ruins of the Babylonian civilization. "'Among stone cliffs riddled with tunnels and rife with traps,'" Eggman read out loud in a sneering voice, "'this _brave_ explorer risked life and limb to recover this ancient masterpiece.' Emphasis mine," he snorted. "And that so-called 'masterpiece' is nothing of the sort, it's just a common soup bowl. Hrrmph!" He scowled, still smarting over the recent failure of his plan to take control of the world with the Gizoid's help. "Serves me right, counting on a robot to do a person's job," he grumbled.

A faint whine came from the far corner, and two rings of glowing red appeared as Metal Sonic raised his head and opened his eyes. The vocal reply, however came from a smooth, egg-shaped, white dome on his desk, which suddenly popped up to reveal the little robot underneath it. "The information about the Gizoid going out of control if it absorbed too much power was available to you both from your grandfather's notes and your own studies. You decided that you could control it when no one else could, ergo, the failure of the plan was due to your own hubris. You were equally aware that the Gizoid absorbed knowledge of any weaponry it was exposed to, but chose to give it access to the Final Egg Blaster, ergo it was your poor deci–"

The robot's words were cut off with a **bang! **as Eggman slammed his fist down on its ping-pong-ball head, collapsing the mech back down like a jack-in-the-box. "I'll _tell _you when I want a lecture," he growled. However, SA-55's words had reminded him that his grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, had believed that the Babylonians were the source of the Gizoid, so perhaps there might be something of interest in those ruins after all. . . .

* * *

Sonic found a nice place to spend the night about two hundred miles from the town Jason Blarick lived in. He had filed the boy and his family away in the back of his mind, same as he did with most of the people he met and places he passed through, which wasn't at all the same as forgetting him. He'd filed the striped stone away, as well; he was more interested in new adventures than old ones. The blue hedgehog had spent the afternoon following an old country highway that had been nearly deserted. He had passed an entire four pickup trucks, and one person creeping along the road in a station wagon while a second human sat in the open back monitoring the leashes of three Dalmatians trotting behind the car. But for most of the afternoon he'd seen no one, and now he spread out his bedroll beside a carefully tended campfire. Several hot dogs were roasting on sticks over the fire, with the buns hopefully placed close enough to toast but not so close they'd burn. "Pity there's no chili," he said to himself, "but those cans are just too heavy to haul around." Supper done and the fire extinguished, he rolled himself up in his blankets and went to sleep.

Sonic didn't often remember his dreams, and such dreams as he did remember had always been much like his ideal life - running where he wanted with the wind in his quills, new and exciting sights around every turn. And in dreams there could be some very new and exciting sights indeed. This one started much the same: an endless dirt road, with his shoes sending up soft puffs of dust with every step, while the sun slipped in and out of view behind puffy white clouds above him. He spotted an eagle up there, circling, and a couple of rabbits dashed up a bank, then turned to watch him go by. A whirring sound rose behind him, and he glanced back to see the red, original, Tornado gradually gaining. He was a bit surprised to see that he was piloting the plane, AND riding on the wing, while Tails tailicoptered along side, but in the manner of dreams it seemed completely normal at the moment. Then he heard a shout, and recognized Amy's voice. He slowed, looking for the pink hedgehog - he couldn't avoid her without knowing where she was - and heard her yell again. _Uh oh, she sounds mad. But I still don't see her . . . _The third shout was still angry, but this time sounded a bit alarmed. He finally placed where the sound was coming from, but the alarm in her tone made him modify his plan. _I'll just take a quick peek and make sure she's all right; __**then**__ I can be gone before she sees me._

Sonic sprinted up the side of a small rise, and stopped. He was looking over Emerald Town Park, and Cream was perched on top of the slide, throwing Cheese at a group of strange-looking robots. Amy was standing at the foot of the slide's steps, whaling away with her PikoPiko Hammer. Every swing of the mallet sent the odd mechanicals flying, but more kept advancing. Sonic jogged close enough to look at a fallen robot. It turned out to be not a robot, exactly, but a giant clockwork toy. Man-shaped, but with the gears rattled out of place by the hammer-blow, nonfunctional. He dodged to the side as another battered clockwork landed where he'd been standing. This one was shaped like a dog or wolf, but still made of metal and wind-up gears. "Sonic!" yelled Amy, catching sight of him, "Help us!"

The blue hedgehog jumped into action, executing chains of homing attacks that were as effective as Amy's hammer swings. As with Eggman's lesser robots, it wasn't the clockwork monsters themselves that were problematic, but merely the number of them. Suddenly the enemies stopped coming, and he found himself surrounded by heaps of smashed toys higher than his head, with Amy halfway up the ladder to see over the top of the piles around her. "What was that all about?" he asked, as he climbed to the top of the heap between them.

The pink hedgehog shook her head. "They're looking for the Dream Caster. They wanted us to take them to him - or her - but Cream and I said we didn't know anything about any such person, and they didn't like that answer. But there were only a couple at first, when I told them to ask someone else, and then they just all poured up like someone had stamped on an ant hill."

"Pretty big ants," commented Sonic, hopping from pile to pile until he reached the slide. Oddly enough, the downhill part of the slide was clear; the attackers had all been focused on the step area. "Are you okay, Cream?"

The young rabbit blinked her huge eyes at him, and nodded until her ears flapped. "Yes, sir, Mr. Sonic. They didn't hurt me or Cheese. Are you okay, Amy?"

"Sure!" Amy accepted a hand from Sonic and he pulled her up to the top of the heap of clockwork things. Not all were humans or dogs; there were elephants and lions, cars and train engines, dokan and some alien-looking things. Sonic handed Amy down the other side and jumped after her, while Cream slid down the slide to join them. "I wasn't going to let those things hurt any of us, Cream! Although, thanks for coming to help, Sonic - there were an awful lot of them and my arms were starting to get tired."

"I'm not surprised. Although you must have gotten a lot stronger than the last time I saw you fight, considering the number you'd already junked before I arrived." Amy blushed with pleasure, and the little voice in Sonic's head jumped up and down hollering _'What do you think you're doing!'_ Fortunately, the girl didn't squeal and fling her arms around him, or declare they were getting married, or any of the things he dreaded her doing every time she came near. Instead she just looked thoughtful.

"Have you ever heard of the Dream Caster? Do you know who that is?" piped Cream, as Cheese fluttered in random patterns around the group. The three dokan sat down in Amy's living room, and the maid brought tea.

"Beats me," Sonic shrugged, and frowned at his cup. It was resting on the arm of his chair and faint ripples whisked across the surface in time with the distant ticking. Wait, what ticking? He sat up and lunged for the window, even as Amy jumped that way as well. She was closer and hauled up the blind and they both stared at the terrifying ticking thing approaching at a run–

Sonic jumped to his feet, and stared around. It took him several moments to realize where he was, for the moon had set and the night was fairly overcast. He sat down on his bedroll with a thump and rubbed his face thinking about his dream. He couldn't remember whatever it was that had scared him out of it, just the dread of its now-forgotten appearance. Now that he was awake, all of the dream was fading, and he grasped at the bits he could remember. _The Dream Caster. That's what Amy said those, those - what were they? I remember that they weren't robots. Whatever, they were looking for this Dream Caster person, the way Jason said the ones in his dreams were looking for something. I wonder if that's the name of the wizard he saw? He said it had been in his other dreams. So the Dream Caster must be some sort of magician who can control people's dreams. I don't know why he'd want to, but he's not going to get away with it! Even Eggman doesn't barge into people's private thoughts! _ He stood up and looked around, but couldn't really see anything in the darkness. Eggman's biggest mech could be fifty feet away, and unless it had its lights on he wouldn't be able to see it. "Hocus pocus," he muttered. "Abracadabra." Nothing happened. When nothing continued to happen, he lay down and tucked the blanket around him. Eventually he managed to get back to sleep.

When Sonic woke up the next morning, the sky was heavily overcast, although not raining. He toasted a hot dog bun for breakfast, while trying to remember what he'd been dreaming about the night before. _Amy was in it, and I sincerely hope she never finds out I was dreaming about her or I'll never hear the end of it. Cream, I think, but she's usually with Amy. And Amy had a maid, which I know she doesn't. A bunch of, of, robots that were looking for the Dream Caster. _He shook his head as if it would jar loose a few more details. He remembered that the robots weren't really robots but not what they'd actually been. But he was quite certain about the Dream Caster, and strongly suspected that that was the wizard that Jason had seen. He sighed as he put out the fire and stowed his bedroll. Checking that the ashes were soaked and cool, he set out down the road again, with something niggling at the back of his mind. Irritated, he increased his pace, trying to clear his mind so he could focus on the cool beauty of the Earth beneath the cold grey light filtering through the clouds. The light intensified the greens somehow, making the grass beside the roads and the trees practically glow in contrast to the muting of other colors. But still the hedgehog felt he was missing something. Something important.

Sonic vaulted over an abandoned car and kicked his speed up another notch, not to his famous super-sonic pace, but to a good hard run that only a true racing vehicle could keep up with. Dust billowed behind him. For some reason, Jason Blarick comment about Sonic's leading the dream-creatures to the ocean popped into his mind. Subconsciously, the blue hedgehog steered towards the shore as he considered the idea.

The idea that Sonic was afraid of water was a vile slander. He had nothing against water per se, but did have a healthy (in his own mind) caution around water deep enough to drown in, because he plain and simple couldn't swim. Tails and a number of other people had tried to talk him into learning, had explained that just because dokan were denser than humans didn't mean they couldn't swim, had insisted he'd be safer if he knew how . . . but as far as Sonic was concerned, the FACT was that if you dropped him into water he'd sink like a stone, and you couldn't teach stones to swim. _Cue Tails to bring out a piece of pumice and point out that some rocks __**can **__float. Well __**I **__can't and so I'll restrict my water activities to places where the levels low enough for me to breathe, or there's a steady stream of big bubbles. Whoa!_ He'd reached a beach while he was thinking. Unlike Emerald Beach, which was mostly sandy aside from the scattered rock outcrops, this beach was made entirely of pebbles, ranging from tiny to fist sized, with a few as big as a human's head. Intrigued, Sonic walked out onto the shingle._ Ha! First time I've gotten to use that term, except in regard to roofs. _He picked up a few stones at random to examine, then tossed them away and picked up a few more. They varied in color and size, but were nearly all ovals, polished smooth by the waves. A few showed fresh breaks with sharp edges, but even most of the broken ones had been smoothed and rounded. The stripes on a tan-and-gray pebble reminded Sonic of the bifurcated agate that Jason had given him. _The day before he got attacked by those robots. The day before he dreamed about - uh oh. Nah, surely not. Amy and Cream can't possibly be being attacked by, by whatever they were._ He dropped the stones and picked up another handful. _Don't be silly, Sonic, dreams don't come real like that. _Sonic flung that handful away more forcefully than he'd intended and walked down the shingle to hunt for more. His brain kept nagging him. Finally he gave up, and kicked a swirl of the smaller stones into the air as he rocketed for home.


	3. Clockwork Chaos

3. Clockwork Chaos

Sonic made excellent time back to Emerald Town. Instead of the country back roads he'd taken out of town, he'd returned on the Interstate, racing along the emergency lanes too fast for most drivers to see more than a blue streak. He looped through the suburban streets, wondering if he should head for Amy's apartment or Cream's house, then spotted a slide in the side yard of a church. "That's right," he muttered to himself, "we were all on a playground." Still telling himself it was a fool's errand, he headed for Emerald Park.

Sure enough, Amy and Cream were there in the park's play area, but rather than Amy swinging her hammer, they were both wielding shovels. Several other youngsters, both human and dokan, were scattered about the area as well, helping to spread new mulch. Sonic stopped to watch for a few moments, grinning as Amy ordered the children around. With her back to Sonic, the pink hedgehog scrambled up a heap of the shredded bark and began tossing shovelsful down for the rest to spread. A sudden chirrup startled Sonic and he jumped as a small weight hit his back and a pair of tiny arms latched around his neck. Recognizing the voice, he reached back to detach his assailant. "Hello, Cheese. Shouldn't you be helping Cream?"

The small blue creature burbled something unintelligible, and shifted so that it was standing comfortably in the hedgehog's hand. Its usual red bow tie had been replaced by a green one today, that matched Cream's green shorts. The rabbit's white T-shirt had a pair of green chao on it, and her ears had green bows tied around them. Amy's outfit was equally practical for work; although still in her trademark red, she had on a split skirt and T-shirt instead of a dress. Pausing to wipe her forehead, she looked around and spotted Sonic. Instinctively he flinched.

"Hey, Sonic!" she waved, but to his surprise didn't instantly jump down and run at him. "How does it look?"

He blinked at the girl a bit dubiously, then walked across onto the freshly-spread mulch. Cheese fluttered over to join Cream. "Looks pretty even. Why are you . . . ?"

"It's a Girl Scout project for Cream's Brownie troop, and somehow I ended up in charge." She slid down the heap of mulch, and leaned her shovel against it. "Um," she glanced around at the younger children, then raised her voice. "It's looking good, girls! Just keep spreading the bark so it's even!" Stepping closer to Sonic she asked, "Can we step over there a bit?" Her rather grimy glove indicated the slide - which was definitely the one he'd seen in his dream.

"Uh, okay." Sonic said warily. But she wasn't grabbing him, or demanding that he marry her, so he did as she asked and moved toward the slide. "What do you want, Amy?"

The pink hedgehog looked down at her boots a minute, digging one toe into the dirt. Finally she drew in a deep breath. "Sonic, I-I'm sorry about how I was acting when Emerl was here. I was being really silly, pretending he was our child and all. I do like you lots, but I, um, don't really expect you to marry me . . . yet."

Sonic smirked in spite of himself. _'Yet.' Good old Amy. _"Thank you," he said gravely. He tried to think of something else to say that wouldn't get him into to much trouble. "And thanks for helping me with him," seemed safe enough. "Ah, you haven't seen any - unusual - robots around recently, have you?"

Amy tilted her head. "Unusual how? I haven't seen anything but Guard Robos since Emerl, um, left. Is Eggman up to something already?"

"I don't think it's Eggman this time. But I had this dream and you were being–"

"You _dreamed_ about me!?" Amy grimaced as she caught herself mid-squeal, then said much more calmly. "You dreamed that I was being - what, chased by unusual robots?"

"Not chased, exactly," Sonic explained, wishing that he hadn't started. He could have just peeked, seen she was all right, and been on his way. "You and Cream were up on a slide - this one, in fact," he patted one of the stair rungs, "and you were whaling away at a swarm of . . . well, I remember they weren't actually robots, but I don't remember what they _were_."

Amy grinned. "One of those sorts of dreams, hm? Where you forget what happened when you wake up?" She looked up at the slide over their heads. "So I was up here?" She climbed up the steps and stood on the top one, looking around. "Hey, that's enough mulching for today!" she called to the girls. "Here come your moms. We'll finish it tomorrow!" She waved as various mothers showed up and left with their daughters, while other girls put their rakes and shovels neatly in the wheelbarrow and left by themselves. Cream was the only one who stayed, coming to join Amy and Sonic at the slide. She climbed up the sloping surface instead of the ladder, joining Amy at the top. Clinging to the top rail to avoid slipping back down, she looked around. And suddenly frowned.

"What's wrong, Cream?" asked Sonic. He couldn't recall ever seeing her frown before.

The spotted rabbit's long lop-ears twitched at their bases, then raised about halfway, although the tips still drooped. "I'm not sure. Do you hear something?"

Sonic felt a sudden chill. Amy cupped a hand to her ear, then her other one, and shook her head. "I don't hear anything. Do you, Sonic?" He started to shake his head, but suddenly she looked away from him. "No, wait. Something's clicking. Is that what you heard, Cream?"

"I thought it sounded more like a clock," started the bunny, but now Sonic could hear it too. _Tick-tick-tick-tick._ Just like his dream, he thought. _Deja vu all over again._

Amy gasped. "Look!" The other two followed her point and saw a three-foot tall mechanical dog marching towards them, emitting a regular tick-tick-tick as it approached. "Um, Sonic? I think I see an unusual robot."

Sonic shot her a glance, and saw she was grinning at him. He grinned back. "Yeah, I think you're right. There are probably others," he warned. She flicked her wrist and produced her trusty mallet.

"Bring 'em on." She glanced at the rabbit. "Sonic and I can take care of ourselves, Cream, but maybe you'd better fly on home."

"But what about them?" The rabbit pointed skywards, and the two hedgehogs saw that there were clockwork birds and bats aloft, swooping in above the treetops, as well as the approaching land animals. The mechanicals varied widely in size; some were even taller than the dog, while the wind-up car that suddenly rolled across Sonic's foot was a mere 3 inches high.

"On second thought, maybe you'd better stay here," he said. He picked up the little car and inspected it. It was shaped like an antique Model-T, spoked wheels and all, with a wind-up key sticking out of the front where the engine crank should have gone. He could feel the tin body vibrate slightly with each click of the internal clockwork. Sonic put it down again, and watched it roll away.

"Sonic! Look out!" Amy's shout made him look up just in time to dodge a metal cougar. About half as tall as the hedgehog was, it landed badly and slid under the slide on its chest. Picking itself up, it whirled and jumped at him again. Sonic caught the edge of the slide and met it with both feet in a high-speed kick that dented the metal body severely. Then he had to turn to meet another attacker, even has he heard Amy's hammer ring against a third. The world narrowed to a stream of brightly-painted metal creatures, and a few vehicles, as Sonic wove a hedgehog shield around the bottom of the slide. Amy's hammer created a second shield overhead, while Cream huddled low at the top of the slide to stay under its path. And then, to top it all off, it started to rain.

And one by one, all the attacking clockwork monsters slowed to a halt, the their ticking sounds slowing with them. Sonic stared at the tin dragon in front of him, frozen motionless with jaws agape, and the flying creations fell from the sky, with loud clangs when they landed on their ground-based brethren. He whipped around at a noise behind him and saw Amy had jumped off the ladder, although she still had her hammer at the ready. Cream was now sitting at the top of the slide with her feet on the top step. Sonic held up his arms, and she jumped down into them, clinging to Cheese. He set her on her feet as Amy automatically fell in on the rabbit's other side. The three dokan stood in the rain, staring around at the motionless metal forms.

"What happened to them?" Cream's voice was barely a whisper.

A giggle rang out. Something they didn't quite see, although Sonic thought it was human-sized, darted away into the trees, calling back, "They ran down, silly!"

Sonic squinted after it. He'd had the impression that it was flying, but he didn't know of any human-sized dokan that could fly. There'd been that tall kangaroo he'd met down south, though; it could hop pretty impressively. Something glittered golden beyond the trees and vanished. He took a step in that direction, then hesitated, looking back at the girls.

Amy caught his glance and held it. "I'll take Cream home," she said, putting a hand on the younger girl's shoulder. "Be careful, Sonic. Um, meet you at Tails'?"

It was a good idea. Sonic nodded. He picked up a cat-sized mechanical dinosaur and weighed it in his hands. "This isn't too heavy. Can you take it with you?"

Amy nodded and took it. "Sure. Come on, Cream." The two started picking their way out of the park. Sonic tucked another windup mech, that looked like a biplane, under his arm and did a quick run through the surrounding suburb.

Incredibly, there was no sign of any mechs, windup or robotic, anywhere outside of the park. Even there he only spotted two or three outside of the general area of the playground. Nor could the hedgehog locate any indication of how the things had gotten to the park - no one seemed to have seen any traveling on the roads or across yards. Decidedly puzzled, he adjusted his grip on the mech he was carrying and sprinted to Tails' workshop.

Amy was already there, and Tails was looking over the inactive dinosaur. They both looked up as Sonic entered. He was in and out of Tails' house and lab so often that he never bothered to knock, anymore than Tails knocked when he came to visit Sonic. The cub grinned at his friend. "Hi, Sonic! Amy told me what happened at the park. Is that from there too?"

"Sure is, Tails. Found anything so far?"

Not yet. Except we don't think it's one of Eggman's. He's usually pretty reliable about stamping his mark on everything he makes. Do you still have the scanner box I gave you? Mine's sort of in pieces right now."

"What? _You_ broke your equipment, Tails?" Sonic set the plane on the table and pulled out the scanner.

"I didn't break it," snapped the fox defensively, as he took Sonic's unit, "I'm upgrading it and I hadn't finished reassembling it yet." Sonic grinned behind the cub's back as Tails stalked back to the strange dinosaur. The fur on the fox's nape was ruffled. Amy caught Sonic's grin and actually scowled at him. Startled, Sonic lost the grin and moved closer to the table.

Tails fiddled with the buttons on the box, tapped it, then pressed a few more buttons. After a moment, he turned towards a desk full of odds and ends and tapped another sequence of buttons. With a faint 'hmph' sound he turned back to the tin dinosaur and tried again, then frowned over the unit at the unmoving mech. Then his ears perked, and he walked over to the spaniel-sized biplane that Sonic had brought and attempted to scan it.

"What's wrong, Tails?" asked Amy finally, as the fox stared thoughtfully at the green-painted plane, his namesake tails wagging slowly behind him.

Tails shrugged. "It's not there."

"What?" Amy walked over and tapped a finger on the closest wing. It made a sharp pinging noise. "Of course it's there."

"No, it's not. The scanner is working properly, and I can get readings on the table its sitting on, but the plane isn't there, and neither is the dinosaur."

"That's what it told me about the robots that were attacking . . . Jason. It said they weren't there, but they disappeared after I defeated them," said Sonic. "And later another set attacked him, and, well, another me defended him, but none of them - us? - were there and that group all disappeared too." Sonic felt his face grow a bit warm as Amy stared at him. It really did sound rather daft, he supposed, if you hadn't been there. "Well, they did," he insisted.

"Who's Jason?" asked Tails, before Amy could speak. "Maybe you better tell us the whole story."

So Sonic did, everything from right before he'd heard the boy being attacked up until Sonic had arrived at Tails' house. ". . . And there was no sign of these things anywhere else, so I came on here."

"Hmm." Tails had sat down on a stool, with his heels on the front edge and his chin resting on his knees. His tails twitched idly as he stared into the distance. "'The Dream Caster.' '_A _dream caster?' Someone who . . . what? 'Casts' dreams, like a magic spell? Sends dreams? Controls dreams? Did any of these things talk to you, Amy? Say they were looking for anyone?" The pink hedgehog shook her head. "But what's the sense in sending someone a dream about an attack before it happens? Is he trying to warn you?"

That was one that hadn't occurred to Sonic. "Dunno. But Jason said he dreamed about the robots twice, and the second time also dreamed that I turned up and fought them off. And it happened. Except, in my dream the clockwork things all vanished," he remembered suddenly, "and they didn't here."

"Only they aren't real. But they aren't holograms or illusions, either," mused the cub. Amy tapped the tin plane again.

"I've heard that if you dream you die, you really do," she said, a bit nervously. "Could this dream caster be doing something sort of similar, like hypnosis of some kind, so your mind makes the dream real the next day? And you believe it, so it has real effects?"

"_Have_ you seen anyone strange?" asked Tails. "You said that Jason said he saw someone that looked like a wizard, have you seen anyone like that?" Sonic shook his head.

"Did he give you anything?" asked Amy abruptly. "Not the dream caster, whoever he is, but this Jason kid. If the dream caster was using some sort of gadget to, to affect him, maybe you've got it now, and that's why it's affecting you."

"No, he didn't give me anything," said Sonic. "Well, just a stone. But why–"

"What stone?" interrupted Tails, jumping to his feet. "Do you still have it?"

"Yes," Sonic pulled the agate out. "But it's just a rock. And it doesn't explain why Jason's robots disappeared and these clockwork things haven't."

Amy looked askance at the clockworks in question, and Tails frowned. "What exactly did you dream about them?" he asked finally.

"Um. It's sort of hard to remember - it was a dream! But I guess . . . well they were attacking Amy and Cream, and then they stopped, and. . ." Sonic searched his brain for the end of the dream. "We had tea!" he finished triumphantly. And felt like an idiot.

"Tea?" Amy hopped up and went to Tails' little kitchen nook. Rinsing out three mugs, she filled them with water and added a tea bag to each, then stuck them in the microwave. When the timer dinged, she handed one to Sonic, and set a second in front of the fox cub.

"Well, I don't think that was quite how–" Although honestly, Sonic couldn't remember the circumstances of the tea anymore. His gaze wandered across the tables. "Hey! Where'd they go?"

The two hedgehogs exchanged bewildered glances and looked at the fox as if the younger boy would have an answer. But Tails was now studying the agate, turning it over in his fingers, and didn't seem to have heard. He looked away from the stone long enough to step over to a desk and fish a magnifying glass out of a drawer, then returned to scrutinizing the odd-shaped pebble. He put the magnifying glass down on the edge of the table and fumbled for Sonic's scanner box, not noticing when he knocked the magnifying glass off the table or Sonic's high speed dash to keep it from hitting the floor. The two hedgehogs shared a rueful glance, and made themselves comfortable. After a while, Sonic zipped out and returned with a pizza that he and Amy shared. Two slices set on a plate by Tails gradually got cold.

At last fox cub shook himself and recalled his guests. "As far as I can tell, it's just a rock," he said. "It's real, but all the tests just show it to be an agate - the colors are a little unusual, but not unheard of. It doesn't seem to be giving off any sort of energy that I can tell. Although," he added as his ears and tails drooped a bit, "I'm probably missing something. Maybe you should ask Rouge or Shadow to see if GUN will check it out."

"Nah, don't be silly, Tails," said Sonic cheerfully. "If you say it's just a rock, then I'll believe you. I trust you more than any GUN super-scientist, even it you are wrong."

"Sssonic!" hissed Amy. The blue hedgehog didn't seem to hear her, and he was already on his feet and heading for the door, so he also missed Tails' flinch at his little 'joke'.

"I'll check back tomorrow, just in case you think of something overnight," he said over his shoulder, and zipped towards his own home. He hadn't been gone long enough for it to smell stale, so he just dropped the thermostat a bit to cool the place off and went to bed.


	4. Electric Sheep

4. Electric Sheep

Half a planet away from Central City and its pleasant suburbs, an alarm went off in a busy market. "Fire! Fire!" Cries broke from numerous throats as people scattered in all directions from a shop that was suddenly erupting with smoke. By the time the fire trucks turned up, all that was to be found in the open-fronted store was an empty cannister that had apparently served as a sort of smoke bomb - and the now-smashed cases that had held jewelry. Only one scouting spybot had detected the three figures shooting up and away from the 'burning' shop, crouched low on hoverboards. Eggman played through the sequence several times, then zoomed in and ran it in slow motion. The leader of the trio had a feathered crest that blazed green beneath the desert sun, and maneuvered his board with a casual insolence that reminded the human gratingly of Sonic. A pair of sacks were slung across his board like saddlebags, one foot on them to keep them from sliding. The second figure was clearly female, also a dokan by size, but her species was indistinct. She was turned half-away from the camera, and had her attention fixed on something cradled in one hand. The third was a massive, gray albatross, who seemed less sure of his hoverboard than the others, although the several large bags slung about his person probably contributed to that. Doctor Eggman steepled his fingers, tapping them together idly as he ran through the clip at full speed again. "Excellent. Yes, this is just the sort of challenge that Sonic should have nothing to do with, and therefore it's just the sort of challenge that he won't be able to pass up." White teeth flashed beneath the bushy moustache as he rubbed his hands together. "And we can improve Robotnik Inc.'s bottom line at the same time. Ergo!"

"Yes, Doctor?" SA-55, the dome-headed robot, popped up from the desk.

"Send a message to Gerald Smithson at our main site, instructing him to increase production of our hoverboard lines. Particularly the high-end performance models. Next, contact the head of the Airborne Racing League and announce a set of qualifying trials, oh, seven should do it, details to follow. The winners of each race will qualify for the World Hoverboard Cup Race."

"But, Doctor, there is no World Hoverboard Cup Race, ergo–"

"Just send the messages." He pulled his own keyboard into his lap and began to type rapidly. "Just send the messages," he repeated, "because there's a World Cup _now_."

* * *

Sonic slept like a log, and woke up with no memory of any dreams he might have had. He pulled on a clean pair of socks and his shoes, and set out to meet Tails at his lab. The cub wasn't there yet, so Sonic turned towards his distinctive house, which was shaped like a fox's head. The hedgehog waved at the sensor of the electronic lock and it let him in. As he closed the door, he heard Tails whimper from the back of the house. Frowning, Sonic started up the hall toward the kit's bedroom.

He shoved the door open as he heard Tails yelp, then make a despairing sort of wail. The blue hedgehog's ears folded down involuntarily as he stepped into the fox's bedroom. Tails was his little brother and his best friend, but his bedroom still gave Sonic the willies; it just felt _so_ claustrophobic to the free-spirited dokan. Skipping the light switch, Sonic called out, "Tails!" as he launched himself across the bedroom to where the window should be. Fumbling with the curtains, he finally managed to open them enough to let a ray of light enter the small room. With that assistance, he found the cord that opened the heavy drapes and pulled them wide.

Tails yipped as the light fell across his face and curled into an even tighter ball, although Sonic wasn't sure how that was possible. The cub was so knotted up he looked half his usual size. "Tails? Hey, Tails!" Sonic located a shoulder under the forest-green blanket and shook it. "Tails, wake up!"

The cub recoiled so unexpectedly that Sonic lost his grip and Tails fell off the other side of the bed. There was a long pause, silent except for a few gasps from the tangle of sheets on the floor. "Tails?" said Sonic again.

"S-Sonic?" There was a rustle and Tails' head appeared over the edge of the bed. His ears drooped and his bangs were all over the place. The fox cub gulped and whispered, "You're not dead?"

"Dead!?" Sonic sat down rather abruptly on his side of the bed. "Of course I'm not dead! That must have been some nightmare you were having."

Tails gulped again and nodded. Hesitantly, he reached a hand across the bed and poked Sonic's arm. Then he hauled himself up and hugged the hedgehog, butting his head against Sonic's chest. "You really are here."

"Of course I am." Sonic hugged the fox cub back, feeling him shake. "That must have been some dream. But you know I'll always be here if you need me, right?" He frowned as the cub neither answered nor looked up. And in spite of the bright light coming through the window, the dark browns and greens of the room were making him feel trapped in a cave again. Tails found the effect soothing, like a den, but Sonic could never get used to it. "Come on," he said, standing up and dragging the fox to his feet as well, "let's get something to eat."

Tails padded silently after Sonic without even bothering to put on his shoes, and sat solemnly in the kitchen while the hedgehog whipped up scrambled eggs and heated some bacon. It wasn't until the meal was nearly gone that the orange fox heaved a deep sigh and perked up some. "Sorry, Sonic. It really was an awful dream."

"So, you gonna tell me about it?"

Tails poked at the bits of egg remaining on his plate. "Well, it started with me running through the ARK in the Tornado II mech, to try to stop Eggman, and I messed that up, you remember, by giving away that the Emerald was a fake, and so Eggman blew up half the planet because he used the real one instead. And then the Black Arms turned up, and I crashed the Tornado III so that Eggman got one of the Chaos Emeralds, and everything I tried doing to fight or hide from the Black Arms failed, and then these giant lightning bugs and electric fish started turning up, at first I thought they were with the aliens but no one but me seemed to be able to see them, and every time I tried to do something I messed up and these things would zap me - not just sparks, but calling lightning down out of the sky, even through ceilings, and –oh, it was horrible!"

"It sounds like it," agreed Sonic. He knew that the one thing that terrified Tails was lighting, so when he was in the area he always made a point of checking on him during thunderstorms. He'd never quite _understood_ it - the cub would work all day with electrical devices in various unfinished states that were well able to shock him, totally without fear - but he was well aware of it. He was also aware that many people found his own distaste for water in amounts larger than a bathtub could hold to be equally inexplicable, so he made no judgement. "But why did you expect me to be dead?"

"Oh." Tail's ears wilted again. "Because– because when I tried to fly the modified Tornado-shuttle to the ARK to face Black Doom, it sort of exploded. And I fell halfway to Earth but landed on a flock of sheep grazing on top of a cloud - and then THEY started to zap me with lighting!"

_Electric sheep? Not what I want to count when I'm trying to fall asleep. _He refrained from laughing at the image, since Tails clearly didn't find it funny. "And I suppose Shadow survived even though I didn't?"

"Um, I'm not sure. The electric fish - eels, I guess, although they didn't look like any eel I've ever seen - reappeared too, and joined the sheep in zapping me again. And you were just lying there all dead, and it was all my fault, I didn't build the shuttle right and everyone on the planet was going to die . . . ."

"Nonsense," said Sonic firmly. "Even if - and I said _if_ - one of your inventions goes wrong, you've never dragged me onto them against my will, so it'd be as much my fault as yours. And you _did_ build the shuttle correctly, and got us _safely_ to the ARK and back again. 'Sides, Shadow wouldn't have let a little thing like an exploding shuttle stop him from defeating Black Doom, and you know it.

"C'mon Tails, you _know_ your stuff is good - just look at all the things you've helped us accomplish!"

Tails glanced up at his friend, then looked at his plate again. "I didn't help Emerl much," he mumbled.

Sonic winced internally, but maintained his encouraging expression. "That wasn't your fault either, Tails. Emerl - well, everyone got tricked, _including _Emerl, because of a flaw his makers built into him. You did what you could to set him free, same as Professor Gerald fifty years ago - heck, for all we know, the guys that built him thousands of years ago may have tried to undo it and couldn't!" Sonic fumbled for something to cheer the cub up. "Look, let's go for a run down to the beach. The fresh air will make you feel better."

Tails shook his head. "That's okay, Sonic. You go for your run; I'm going to go back to the lab and think some."

"Sometimes you think too much, Tails," Sonic argued. "You really should come with me."

"No thanks. Why don't you go check on Cream and Amy, and make sure they're okay after yesterday. I should see if I can work anything else out about that stone. Although it probably won't do much good."

"If anyone can learn anything about it, it's you, Tails," answered Sonic confidently, as he jogged out the door.

Half an hour later, he opened the door to the fox cub's lab. The hedgehog had checked on Cream, who had told him that both she and Amy were fine, and then run around the city a few times, scouting for trouble. Not finding any, he'd decided to check back with Tails, both to see if he'd learned anything and in the hope that he was feeling better. Sonic had never quite figured out how to deal with the two-tailed fox's occasional fits of self-doubt. The hedgehog had never doubted himself in his life, (except for when Emerl had died, but he tried to forget that part of it) and couldn't quite comprehend that problem. It was so obvious that Tails had talent, and even if things sometimes didn't turn out as expected - well, that was life. You learned what you could from it and went on.

"Hi, Sonic," said Tails. He was perched on a stool with his feet dangling, looking into some sort of microscope. The dual eyepieces stuck out of a large box-like affair, with knobs and dials enough to be a computer in its own right.

"Hey, Tails. Feeling better?"

"I guess." The cub kicked his feet and let them swing a few times. Then he sat up straight, scooting back a bit on the stool. "It still seems to be an ordinary rock," he said, "but you said that kid had dreams that came true while he had it, and then you had a dream about Amy and Cream getting attacked by clockworks and they did, and I– " Tails paused, considering his next words. "I was dreaming about stuff that already happened, so that's different. Even though there were those electric eels and sheep-things, and it didn't work out the same as in real life, the _events_ are over. You don't suppose Black Doom's going to come back, do you?"

"Of course not," replied Sonic confidently. Suddenly he blinked. The solution was so obvious, he couldn't believe that he'd missed it. "Where is the stone, anyway?"

"It's in here." Tails slid off his stool and opened a hatch in the bulk of the electronic microscope. Reaching in with a gloved hand, he pulled out the agate. Which was suddenly gone from his hand. "Hey!"

Sonic snatched the striped stone, ignoring Tails' shout, and ran out the door. Once outside, he pelted full-bore for the beach. Since the stone was clearly the source of the trouble, the thing to do would be to get rid of the stone. Even Knuckles could work that one out, and it irked the hedgehog that it had taken him this long to see it. Besides, Jason had _said _that the creatures in his last dream had fallen into the sea. Catching sight of the waves ahead, he sprinted across the beach in a cloud of sand, swinging one arm out and around as he raced towards the foam - and hurled the small stone as far out to sea as he could. Although he wasn't particularly strong for a dokan, no one could match him for applied momentum, and the oddly shaped pebble skipped once, twice, four times before he lost sight of it among the distant waves. "Ha!" he said to no one in particular, and jogged back to the lab to tell Tails that his nightmares were over.


	5. The Persistence of Dreams

5. The Persistence of Dreams

Tails jogged determinedly along Davis Avenue, his tails wagging behind him. Finally he staggered to a halt by an empty bench and sank down onto it panting. _Sonic may be a big fan of running to avoid thinking about your problems, but my legs don't agree with him._ On the other hand, the complaints from his leg muscles did interrupt his fretting over his recent dreams. The one that Sonic had woken him up from the day before had been bad, but he'd had more all last night, over and over with him failing - although now they were new tasks, not ones he'd already been successful at - and then the monsters crept out, calling lightning and electrifying metal objects around him. Shaking his head in rejection of the memories, he pulled out a water bottle and took a few gulps. He looked around as he stood up again, and noticed a new poster tacked up on a telephone pole. He grinned in spite of his worries as he noted that it overlapped the bottom edge of another sign that read 'Do not post signs on this pole'. Stretching his tired legs, he walked over and inspected the gaudy sign. Two humans and two dokan were silhouetted in bright colors, each riding a hoverboard. Superimposed on those images were the words 'Central City Hoverboard Challenge!!', and below that, in smaller letters, 'World Cup Qualifier!' Still smaller print detailed entry instructions and conditions, which the cub skipped over, and at the bottom, in print that rivaled the top line in size, was the date, about two weeks hence. Tails shook his head again as he continued his jog. Hoverboards were popular enough, sort of like those ATV things, but he'd never been particularly into them. If he wanted to fly, he had several versions of the Tornado, not to mention his own two tails. He'd never heard of a hoverboard World Cup, but considering how little attention he paid to the sport, that was hardly surprising. _To each their own, I suppose. Good luck to anyone who does enter. _

Dismissing the poster from his thoughts, he found his mind returning to that odd-shaped agate Sonic had found. _I really wish he hadn't thrown it away. _But, that was Sonic all over, the thought equaled the deed, whether right or wrong. _Although, to be fair, he isn't often wrong. But this time, I think he was. The dreams didn't stop, not for me. And he's run off again, so I can't ask him if he's still having odd dreams. At least I know Amy and Cream aren't._ He'd called them this morning, just to check up, although without mentioning his own bad dreams. They'd just finished the project at the playground and neither had seen any more of the clockwork creatures. And no one had seen anything odd, either locally or on the national news. But lightning strikes were happening with dismaying frequency in his dreams. Those dreadful purple eel-things– he could practically see them oozing out though the walls. Tails growled, baring his teeth and sped up, counting his steps to try to focus his mind. _One-two-three-fou– OUCH!_

"Do you mind, fox-boy?" The arch voice was familiar, as was the arched brow. Although it wasn't Rouge he'd run into; she was standing to the side.

Tails gulped nervously as he looked up at the human woman he'd collided with. "I- I'm sorry," he stammered.

She smiled pleasantly enough. "No harm done. Are you all right?" He nodded and she went on, crouching to bring her face nearer to his level. "I'm Amber. I work with Rouge, and she's told me a lot about you. You built that shuttle that took Shadow and Sonic up to the Black Comet, didn't you? That's amazing!"

Tails glanced over at Rouge, but the bat was admiring a gold bracelet on her wrist and pretending to ignore the conversation. For whatever reason, she didn't seem inclined to scoff at him, as she often did. "Yes, ma'am, I did," he said, feeling his spirits rise. Somehow compliments from strangers seemed to mean more than praise from his friends. "I flew them to the ARK, and then on to the Black Comet."

"He also defused that missile Eggman lobbed at Station Square, remember," added Rouge, still apparently focused on her jewelry. "And he worked out how dangerous Emerl was. He's not only got brains, he knows how to use them."

The fox cub blinked; in his experience, it was unusual for the bat to be complimentary unless she was being sarcastic. But Rouge seemed to actually mean what she said. _Well, if she's being genuine right now . . . . _"Um, Rouge, you haven't seen anything, uh, weird, recently, have you?"

"Weird how?" She looked at him, tilting her head curiously.

Hesitantly, Tails told the two GUN agents (or was Amber an agent? At any rate she had on a GUN uniform) about the clockwork things that had appeared in the park a few days earlier. He didn't mention that Sonic had dreamed about them beforehand, although he did say that they'd disappeared afterwards. The two women seemed very interested, and exchanged a glance when he'd finished. But then Amber shook her head, and Rouge said thoughtfully, "No, I haven't heard anything like that. Hmm. Haven't heard anything, really, that I can tell you - ex_cept_," she glanced around and stepped closer. "Have you seen the posters up for the hoverboard races? There are seven of them in the next two months, all over the world, culminating in this World Cup thing." She eyed Tails closely, and he agreed that he'd seen them. "Well, next one you see, take a good look at who's sponsoring the event. I think you'll be . . . _in_terested." She winked, and stepped back. "But we'd better be getting on, or we won't have time to eat lunch. See you around, Tails." With a wave, the bat walked off. The human gave the cub a grin and a "Nice meeting you", and followed her friend.

Tails scratched his head, decided he'd come far enough to turn around, and headed back the way he'd come. When he got back to the telephone pole with the poster on it, he paused to take a good look - and saw what Rouge had meant. "'Sponsored by Robotnik Inc.' That _is_ interesting. I wonder what Eggman's up to now?" He turned that thought over in his head as he jogged back home.

He pushed the door open without pausing to unlock it - he'd long since installed a security system that recognized him and his friends and allowed them automatic entry. He wandered into the kitchen and pulled open the refrigerator to make lunch. As he lifted a jar of mayonnaise from the shelf, the light and the motor both stuttered and went out.

Tails frowned, then stepped back and closed the door to conserve the cool air. Putting the jar of mayo on the counter, he realized that the digital clock on the microwave was still lit. He reached over and flipped the light switch, and the overhead fluorescents obediently flickered to life. "Huh. Must be a breaker." Sighing, he headed down the hall. The circuit breaker panel was stubborn as always, but when he got it open, he was surprised to see the refrigerator circuit in the 'on' position. He flipped it off and back on to reset it, and returned to the kitchen.

The fridge was still dark and silent. With a grimace of annoyance Tails decided to get lunch first, then deal with the recalcitrant appliance. He took the mustard, cheese and beef out and added them to the items on the counter. But as he started to assemble his sandwich, he heard an odd crackling from behind him.

Frowning, he looked back at the refrigerator, afraid that something had gone wrong with the wiring. Instead, he heard a soft 'pop' join the crackle as the door cracked open, and suddenly a pair of massive violet jaws shoved the door aside and struck at the fox cub. Tails yelped and dove to the side, then scrambled into the living room. Tails twisting in dismay, he looked around for something to use as a weapon, and saw another pair of jaws on a long, thin body eeling out the back of the television. As the first eel appeared in the archway to the kitchen and a third glided up the hall from the bedroom, Tails yanked open the front door and fled.

Where to flee _to_ was the problem. If these were really the creatures he'd seen in his nightmares, he didn't want to be outside with them. On the other hand, he couldn't inflict them on just anyone; someone might get hurt. Without consciously reasoning it out, his feet took him in the direction of Amy's apartment building as another violet monster coiled down a lamppost.

"Tails?" She answered the door, alarmed by his panicked pounding, and jumped back in surprise as he lurched through. "Tails, what's wrong? What happened?" she asked, even as she caught his arm and steered him to the closest chair.

"Th-the-they're after me!" he managed. He'd seen more of the things sliding out of alleys and yards, pacing him on the opposite side of the street and periodically sending out little bolts of electricity. The few other people who'd been out had cleared out of the eels' way as fast as they could. "Those electric eel-things from my dreams, they want to, to zap me!" Although, even as he said it he started to wonder why. What did they gain by attacking him? At least in his dreams he'd done something to deserve it! He also realized belatedly that Amy couldn't possibly know what he was talking about, since he hadn't told her about his nightmares.

The pink hedgehog blinked, started to open her mouth - then closed it firmly and headed for the coat closet. As she went, she flicked a wrist and pulled her mallet out of thin air, and with the same hand yanked the closet door open. Her free hand pulled out a pair of red rubber galoshes, then groped inside on the floor a moment and pulled out a slightly smaller green pair. She tossed the second pair at Tails. "Put these on," she ordered. "They're too small for me, but they're too big for Cream, so they should fit you. It's not a lot of rubber, but it may help. And my hammer is wooden." As she spoke, she was pulling on the red boots without letting go of the hammer. She put an ear to the door and then peeked out into the hall, then plopped down on the couch opposite the fox cub. "Nothing out there yet, so how about giving me the story from the top?"

Tails did so, telling Amy about the dreams and the monsters that turned up to zap him with lightning, and how the refrigerator had died and then the eels started appearing all over. And how he'd run to look for help. "Sonic's who-knows-where, and Cream doesn't really know how to fight and Knuckles is on Angel Island - and I don't know where _it_ is at the moment - and I didn't feel like I know Shadow or Rouge well enough to ask, so . . . I came here. Sorry. I'm probably getting you into trouble."

Amy scoffed. "I'm your friend, and friends help each other. And you're right about Cream; she'd want to help but there's not much she can do. There may not be much I can do, for that matter, but I'll try what I can, anyway." She cocked her head suddenly, and turned to look at the door. "I think we've got company." She stood up and readied her hammer. Tails slid off the chair and stood up too, hearing the faint crackling from the far side of the door.

There was a long pause. Then Amy jumped forward and jerked the door open. She swung her hammer nearly at the same time, and brought the wooden head down soundly on the violet eel in the hall. The lithe form snapped out straight and rigid, then collapsed. The pink hedgehog poked her head out, then pulled back and shut the door firmly. "Fire escape." She moved towards the bedroom.

Tails followed, feeling silly in the green boots. He helped Amy wrestle with the window, which (of course) stuck. Then he realized the problem. "Not there, Amy - it's made of metal!" But there were eels gliding into the bedroom behind them, and no where else to go. He took a quick look outside as he climbed up on the windowsill. There were no eels visible, but when he looked down he could see several fluffy yellow forms - the electric sheep. Tails took a breath and attempted to jump over the metal railing and take flight at the same time. He didn't quite make it, but the metal wasn't electrified. He held his hand out to Amy, but she shook her head.

"I need my arm free." She climbed onto the windowsill in turn, then jumped over the fire escape entirely. Tails gasped and made a quick lunge to catch her around the middle. With every sign of faith in his ability to do so, the pink hedgehog twisted as she jumped and smashed another eel as it tried to follow her out the window. "Let's get out of here, Tails. Someplace there's not too many people. You fly, I'll defend."

"Yes ma'am," said the fox cub promptly. "But I hope you'll forgive me if I don't salute; my hands are full."

"Ha. Ha. Very funny." But her tone was amused.

To Tails' dismay, the sheep followed them on the ground, and the eels paced them in the air, but to his relief the lightning bolts from his dreams failed to materialize. Actually, he realized after a bit, there seemed to be something . . . wrong about them, as if their mere existence wasn't wrong enough. But between his tiring tails and arms, he didn't have much energy left to worry about the enemies - he was more worried about how long he could both stay aloft and retain his hold on Amy. (Just the flicker of thought that he might drop her - and her probable reaction when she caught up with him afterwards - was enough to lend temporary strength to his grip, but it was failing fast.)

He got as far as the Emerald Town playground and knew he couldn't go any further. The landing was rather rougher than usual, but the pink hedgehog merely stood up and dusted herself off without comment. Tails looked around, and picked up a fallen branch, then turned to face their pursuers. Who were milling around about thirty yards away as if blocked by an invisible wall. The fox cub frowned.

"Tails," said Amy thoughtfully, "are they supposed to do that? They seemed a bit confused while they were following us."

"I don't know. They certainly were more, um, aggressive in my dreams. And in my house, come to think of it."

Amy rested the head of her mallet on the ground and leaned on the handle. "Do you suppose I'm puzzling them? If they were sent after you, maybe they don't know who they're supposed to attack?"

"But the mechanical things attacked you and Sonic and Cream. And _they_ didn't seem bewildered, did they?"

"No, but he dreamed we were there, and when you were telling me about your nightmares about these eel and sheep-things, you never mentioned me being in any of the dreams with you."

"You weren't." The little orange fox flicked a quick glance at Amy, who was watching the milling creatures closely. For whatever reason, they were neither coming closer nor circling around; it really did seem as though some sort of barrier held them back.

"You're not supposed to change the dream," said a voice above them. "You can dream about other people, but if you didn't dream about them, they aren't supposed show up. The third-levels aren't very bright, but they know they'll get into trouble with wise men if they attack the wrong person. Of course, the rules have changed and they aren't certain how to react to that, either."

Amy and Tails both stared up into the tree. There was little to be seen overhead except branches and leaves, but Tails thought he caught a glimpse of pink or white. He opened his mouth, but Amy beat him to it.

"Who's up there!?" she demanded. "Come on down here, and tell us what you're talking about! What are third-levels and who are the wise men?"

"Who _are_ the wise men?" Tails still couldn't see the speaker, even though he was shifting position to scan the tree's canopy, but whoever it was sounded positively delighted. "Oh, that is rich! But you'll meet _the_ wise men soon enough, no doubt, now that the dream caster's been charged!" There was a rustling from above, and retreating laughter. Tails backed away from the tree and took to the air, hoping to get a look at whoever it was, but –the world turned brilliant white - then black.

"Tails! Tails, get - umph! - get up!"

_Amy sounds out of breath_, he thought muzzily. Then his eyes flew open as he realized what was going on. He'd moved towards the, the 'third-levels' when he'd tried to look up, and apparently that had decided them to attack. The fox cub staggered to his feet, and swung the stick he (fortunately) was still holding at a small yellow sheep. Nearby, the pink hedgehog was wielding her hammer with practiced skill. Tails hit two more sheep, and one of the eels, and abruptly all the creatures ran (or slithered) away.

"**What **is going on here?" Tails spun around at the smooth, cool voice and looked up at a pair of sapphire eyes. They glanced at him and flicked on to Amy. "Who are **you**, and what are you doing here?" An overly long arm extended, pointing a bone-pale finger tipped with a black talon at the girl. Without any of the rage or bluster of Doctor Eggman, this creature exuded malevolence. Tails had a strong urge to flee with the attackers.

Amy, however, shouldered her hammer and marched forward. "The name's Amy Rose, and I'm helping out my friend. Who are **you**, and what are _**you**_ doing here?" She matched the stranger's inflection with the first phrase, and raised it on the second.

The pale being glared at her. Whoever this was, he was neither dokan nor human. The . . . being . . . had a rather elongated look, far too tall to be dokan but much too thin to be human, and was dressed in strange outfit trimmed in red and gold, crowned by a jester's cap striped in red and deep crimson. _First a wizard, and now a jester . . . . Surely not. _"Are you the Dream Caster?" he piped up.

The creature gave an unmistakable start of surprise, and bent down to look the fox cub in the face. "What do you know about the dream caster?" demanded the silky voice.

Tails gulped, his tails curling up in front of him like a shield. "Nothing really, only that some kid saw a wizard in another town and we think he's called a dream caster," he said nervously. The sudden intensity drained out of the creature as quickly as it had come, and it straightened. It turned and drifted away a few feet, murmuring to itself. Tails blinked as he saw the crimson boots were floating a few inches above the ground. No wonder it had snuck up on them. He caught the word 'knights' amid the murmur. _Well, that sounds about right. Wizards, jesters, and knights. All we need now are a dragon and a king._ "Who are you?" he asked, echoing Amy's unanswered question.

The strange being looked back at the two dokan, its eyes narrowing thoughtfully. A black-nailed hand toyed with the end of one of its hat's twin points. And suddenly folded across the crimson and black vest as the being bowed. "Merely Reala, Master Tails. Only a humble jester." And with that it rose into the air, and flew off rapidly eastwards.

"Tails," Amy asked carefully, "how did he know who you were?"

"I don't know. But I don't think he - I don't think that this Reala is a humble anything. And I really wish Sonic hadn't thrown that agate away - did you notice? His hat was the same shape as the stone."


	6. Conversations

**AN: **Sorry folks, I forgot that the indentations in my manuscript would get replaced by line-skips here, which effectively eliminated the separations between the sections. Hope this is more legible.

6. Conversations

A large dirigible drifted idly above golden sands, blown by the desert winds. Tethered to one of the stubby wings that supported the engines, Wave the Swallow scowled at a notched propeller. In point of fact, her scowl was more for Jet and his idiotic daredevilling than for the propeller; that stupid stunt of his in Arambid was the reason the ship had been damaged, and the Babylon Rogues had been lucky to get out of town with their lives. But Jet, cocky as he was, refused to admit there had been any danger. The purple swallow blew her breath out in irritation and began to unfasten the propeller. "Not 'admit'," she muttered. "He refuses to see that there _was_ any danger. Not as long as the almighty _Air Master _is in charge, and never mind that one of the police tanks' shots nearly sheared our control cables, and another might have broken this propeller. Oh, no, I'm _sure _that Jet the Hawk can fly this thing on one functional motor with no steering and half a propeller lodged in his fat head." She yanked viciously at a stuck bolt and swore as it suddenly came lose and flipped out of her fingers and down to the sands below. Still grumbling to herself, she finally got the massive blade lose and twiddled the controls on her flight belt to glide back to the dirigible's deck. Trying to maintain footing on a hoverboard while doing repair work on an undocked blimp was impossible, so she'd developed a belt that operated on the same principles. The spare blade lay waiting on the deck, with a packet of the required bolts, nuts, cotter pins and other attachments, and she selected a replacement for the lost bolt and a few other parts that looked worn. As she started to pick up the propeller, a trap door opened in the deck and a grey head popped up.

Storm blinked at her owlishly, as if trying to figure out who she was. "Oh, Wave," he said finally. The swallow waited.

After a moment she said, "What do you want, Storm?" She knew she was sometimes too impatient with other people because they weren't as smart as she was, but Storm would surely try anyone's patience. The albatross tended to think as fast as lava on a glacier, and his thoughts had the same tendency to stick to a single channel regardless of changes in the situation.

"Oh! Wave," he repeated. "Jet says get down here now! There's a message from someone, and this race thing that's challenging!"

"Tell Jet I'll be there as soon as I finish this repair. He wants to be able to leave if anyone finds us, I'm sure." Wave was flying back out to the engine as she spoke.

"Jet says, get down here now!" bellowed the albatross. "He says _now_, Wave; there's a race-challenging thing!"

"I said, I'll be there as soon as the ship's fixed." It didn't do any good to get angry back at the albatross, and Wave hated to waste energy, especially in the mid-day heat. Besides, Storm got a lot more excited if you were calm back to him. "And if you keep pounding on the rail like that, you'll have to report to Jet that you're the reason I'm late," she added.

"Huh?" The massive grey bird stopped mid-pound, and looked at the rail, then the swallow, in confusion. Eventually he put together a question, "You're the one who isn't coming, how is that my fault?"

"Because I said I'll come when the ship's," she paused to wrestle with a stubborn nut, "fixed. And if you break bits off that'll be that much more for me to fix, so that much longer before I'm done."

Storm stood silently, apparently trying to work that out, while Wave finished replacing the propeller. Gliding to the top of the wing, she flipped a switch to restore power to the motor and closed the hatch, then pressed another control on her flight belt that remotely activated the ship's engines. She watched the propeller spin through several revolutions at gradually increasing speed, then shut the engines down again. Returning to the deck, she released her tether (which automatically recoiled itself into her belt) and collected her bits and tools. As she descended the steps below the trap door, she heard Storm above her. Apparently he'd finished thinking. "I told you, Jet says– Hey! Where'd you go?"

* * *

"What do **you **want?" The light voice dripped with scorn.

"I want you to shape up and do the job you're supposed to do. Failing that, which you always do, I want you to do the job you've _chosen_ to do. We have a task, you know, and the Master–"

"_Your_ Master, perhaps, but not mine. I do what I choose, and when I choose. And this one has someone to help, so what does he need me for? I'd much rather explore; I've heard so much about this place."

"Because that is your role. You don't want your little - _friends_ - to do it," the second voice, deeper, twisted with disdain for the term, "so you must take up their part."

"Yes, but," a hesitation, followed by a flicker of worry, "now that - _**it**_ - has been triggered, what happens to us? When the story ends for one reader, the book goes on for the next, but when the reader is _in _the book . . . ?"

There was a pause, while neither individual quite looked at the other. At last the second said, "That may be resolved by the time we have finished our tasks. Whether it is or not, the tasks must be done, and we must do them. Certainly no one _here_ can.

"And whether you 'choose' to aid this one or not, he _is_ your responsibility now. Need I remind you that what happens in a dream fades when you wake, but what happens in real life lasts? The third-levels haven't the wit to comprehend that the damage they do may be real, but you ought to be able to understand it. What happens if the Sheeck strike too closely? And the Eelons have already knocked him down once." A shrug, and the speaker turned away. "It is my task to set them on the scent; in this world I am not certain I could call them off it, even if I wanted to. But it is your choice to amuse yourself, as always, regardless of the consequences to the rest of us. You should be very glad that **we **don't have to sleep." And he was gone, in a flicker of crimson light.

The one left behind growled, darted back and forth in indecision, and wheeled away to vanish in his own, golden, flare of light.

* * *

Waves splashed against the creek banks as a massive purple cat waded along the deep channel. "Come on, Froggy, the big fish should be just around the corner. You know, Mr. Knuckles says they swim all the way to the ocean and back again. Do you remember the time I found you in the ocean after you swallowed the water monster's tail? Try not to swallow anything like that again, okay?"

The large frog on the cat's head croaked, and snagged a mosquito out of the swarm of insects around the pair. Its lovely gold-mottled eyes closed as it swallowed, then it leaped into the water and swam down the stream a little ahead of its companion. After a while, the creek dropped in a short pair of waterfalls into a larger stream. Broad and shallow, the water below them churned with dozens of thrashing, copper bodies. With a crow of delight, Big the Cat jumped down among them and limbered his fishing rod. You didn't really need bait when the golden salmon were spawning; the aggressive males would strike at anything. So the violet tabby tossed out his hook again and again - usually with bits of leaf stuck on it, but sometimes bare - and the stack of gold-and-copper-scaled bodies piled up on the bank. Froggy sat on the pile and made sure that none of the fish flipped back into the water.

At length, Big pulled in a last fish and waded to shore. Bending over, the stout dokan swept the collected salmon into a bag of loosely woven vines. "Hey!" He straightened up and heaved himself out of the water. Raising his tail as he turned, he saw that a fish had bitten onto it. "I'm supposed to catch you," he scolded it as he added it to the bag, "not you catch me." Heaving the bag onto one shoulder he set out along the trail that would take him to his hut. It was longer than going up the creek, but the branches along the waterway would snag the bag and might tear it. "Fresh fish for dinner Froggy, " he said happily. "And fish to smoke, and put in that freezer that Tails brought us."

Froggy croaked cheerily, and paused to examine something that had fallen out of one of the fish. It appeared to be a small, stone jester's cap. (Froggy did not, of course, have a _word_ for 'jester' but he had seen some in Twinkle Park once, and the image in his memory wore a hat that looked very much like the striped rock.) Picking the varicolored rock up in his mouth, he bounced down the trail after his friend.

* * *

"Here you go, Shadow. I bought you a present." Shadow managed not to jump, but he wondered how many people other than Rouge would dare sneak up on him. Sonic, perhaps. Most other people would be leery of startling the Ultimate Life-form, in case he killed them.

He looked curiously at the long flat package she'd handed him, and back to the bat. "What is it, Rouge?"

"Open it and find out."

With a faint shrug, the dark hedgehog slipped a finger under a seam of the gaudy paper and broke the tape free. Quickly he exposed the item inside. "A hoverboard?"

"Yes. They're very popular all of a sudden. I got myself one too; I thought we could learn how to use them."

"I already know." The dark hedgehog flipped the power switch on the bottom of the board and laid it down, where it hovered a few inches off the ground. "Father - Professor Gerald - used to make them, you know." He looked at the board, remembering.

Rouge watched him cooly, with just a hint of calculation in her aqua eyes. "I'd wondered. Did you notice the brand name?"

Shadow gave her another curious glance, then took a closer look at the board. He hadn't paid attention to the brand; why did she think he'd– "Interesting," he said finally. The name was as familiar to him as his own.

"That's it? 'Interesting'? That's all you have to say?"

He looked at her again. "What do you want me to say? Obviously it's some sort of plan of the Doctor's - and a bit more original than most, since this is a hoverboard and not a robot . . . . It _is_ just a hoverboard, isn't it?"

"Oh yes. I had a couple of the GUN techs check them out, inside, outside, and upside down, and they're straight tech. But then, anything with the Robotnik Inc. brand always has been - Eggman's far too clever to get caught with anything incriminating in his _legal_ businesses."

Shadow rubbed his chin, looking at the board thoughtfully as it floated between them. "So Doctor Eggman is pushing hoverboards, and sponsoring a big race. Not merely an advertising ploy, surely. Could he need to raise a lot of money for something?" He stepped up on the board and glided the length of the front walk, spun it on its tail and returned. "Not bad. There seem to have been some improvements in the last fifty-odd years."

Rouge snorted, amused in spite of herself. "I'd imagine so. You noticed the posters then."

"They _are_ all over the place. They're a bit hard to miss. _And_ the TV ads, _and_ the newspaper ads, _and_ the online banner ads - I think you could definitely say I've heard about World Hoverboard Cup."

Something in the bat's bustier chirped, and she fished out a small cell phone without a hint of a blush. "Agent Rouge. Uh huh. Uh huh. No. Oh, very well. Ten minutes." She clicked it off and tucked it back down. "Sorry, Shadow, I have to fly. Business, you know."

"Wait, don't you want the hoverboard back?" He held it up as she took wing.

"What? No, I told you it was a gift. Happy Birthday, Shadow."

"Happy . . ." He hadn't had a birthday - or at least thought about it - since he'd lived on the ARK with Maria. Now that she mentioned it, he realized that it _was_ almost his birthday (or the nearest equivalent, since as an artificially created life-from he hadn't technically been 'born'). "Huh. How did you know?"

"I looked it up in the files. We'll have to have a proper party for you next year, but this was the best I could do on short notice. See ya!" With a wave she darted away on the evening breeze.

Bemused, Shadow looked back at his gift. Remembering his days on the ARK, he stepped back on and began practicing some of the old moves. He'd always preferred his hover skates, but Maria had laughed so when he did tricks with the board. She'd been forbidden to use one after falling and cutting her forehead, so she'd insisted that Shadow learn to ride them instead. And now, fifty and more unacknowledged birthdays away from her, here he was on one again.


	7. Unhelpful Help

7. Unhelpful Help

Tails and Amy wandered around the park a bit, looking out for any more unfamiliar creatures. When they reached the snack bar at the front entrance Tails' stomach reminded him that he'd never eaten any lunch. Tails was uneasy about sitting near the other children eating ice cream and popcorn at the picnic tables, so he and Amy took their food back into the park. Finding a couple of trees in a grassy spot, they sat down to eat. The fox cub kept looking around as he chewed.

"Relax, Tails," said the pink hedgehog sensibly. "I'm looking past you, and you're looking past me, so nothing's going to sneak up on us without one of us seeing it. And don't say it can sneak down from above, because you're looking up so much I'm surprised you don't have mustard on your throat from missing your mouth. And you're going to pour your soda in your lap if you don't watch out."

Tails grimaced, nodded, looked suspiciously at the ground - then jumped as something bapped him on the head. He grabbed at it, and realized it was a wadded-up napkin. He glared at Amy who was carefully looking everywhere but at him while trying to keep a straight face. Then the two broke up into giggles.

"Okay, so you're right," he admitted, "but what am I going to do? I don't dare go home - or anywhere else - and try to sleep because they might sneak up on me. And I don't think things that are hurling lightning bolts are exactly safe to have around other people, and I don't want anyone to get hurt just by being around me."

"Which is why the first thing you did when they showed up was lead them to my house?"

"No! Well, I mean, I knew you wouldn't let them hurt you. You can take care of yourself, and I _did_ warn you when I arrived. But, say we were sitting with those kids back there," he waved in the general direction of the snack bar. "What do you think would happen if those eels and sheep-things turned up there?"

Amy nodded. Putting her drink on the ground beside her, she propped her chin in her hands. "Rouge was talking about putting rubber mats on all the surfaces in her night club," she said thoughtfully. Then she sat up with a little gasp, looking over the fox cub's shoulder. Tails twisted around.

The figure there was similar in general appearance to the one they'd seen earlier, that had called itself Reala. The coloring was very different, however. The skin, although pale, was a more life-like tone than the underbelly white of Reala. The clothing was trimmed in pink and purple, rather than red and black. The eyes were a dreamy blue, also surmounted by a jester cap, but this hat was striped in lavender and violet. The cap came down in an exaggerated imitation of a widow's peak to hide where the nose should be. The arms were folded guardedly across the chest, and expression on the face was downright sulky.

"Hello," said Tails, as cheerfully as he could manage._ Why does this one seem familiar? It's not just that it looks like Reala, I don't think. _"Can we, um, help you?"

The mouth twitched, and the being glowered at the little fox. "Tell me I can go," it said suddenly, in a light, androgynous voice. "Tell me you don't want my help, and that I may go where I please."

Tails blinked. Of a number of possible responses, that was certainly not one the fox had considered. "Um," he said again, at a loss.

"What help don't we want?" asked Amy. "And who are you, anyway?"

The creature scowled. "My name is Knights. And I'm supposed to help him," a finger flicked at Tails above the folded arms, "get oriented in the dream world."

"But–," started Amy.

"But I'm not dreaming," Tails overrode her. "Am I?"

"Nope, you're not," agreed NiGHTS hurriedly, "so you don't need my help. Goodbye!"

"Hey!" protested Tails as the strange stranger leaped into the air and started to soar away. And the memory clicked. _Knights? NiGHTS! NiGHTS into Dreams, that game in Casinopolis that Sonic liked so much! This - person - looks like the game mascot! _Sonic loved the pinball game; Tails didn't particularly care for it, but he did remember the main character, particularly that leaping pose as NiGHTS took flight. _Come to think of it, Reala's picture might have been in there too_. The fox glanced at Amy, and with a little growl of irritation, told her, "Wait here." Twirling his tails determinedly, he took off after NiGHTS.

The peculiar being was flying rapidly northward, but Tails put all his effort into catching up with - him? Her? It, maybe. Whatever the pronoun was, Tails was going to catch up. He was unexpectedly aided by the fact that NiGHTS suddenly slowed speed and dropped altitude, apparently looking at something on the ground. And then picked up speed, doing a barrel roll, and then a backwards loop. Tails slowed himself momentarily, until he realized that NiGHTS wasn't paying attention to anything around –him. _Him_, he repeated mentally, _I've got to call him something, and 'it' would be rude, and 'her' doesn't seem quite right. Reala, by comparison, is __**definitely**__ a him. _ Tails increased his speed, tailicoptering beneath NiGHTS while the other was sculling along through the air on his back, and popped up about ten feet ahead of the purple hat. NiGHTS, completely unaware of the fox, glided on toward him. "I didn't say you could go," said Tails.

The reaction was rather amusing. NiGHTS tried to simultaneously sit up in midair, while looking 'up' at Tails, and managed a peculiar sort of fold-and-drop, that turned into a belly-flop as NiGHTS tried to roll back right-side-up. It required several seconds for him to reorient himself, and 'stand' in front of the hovering fox.

"That was NOT funny," he announced.

"Yes it was," replied the fox cub, feeling uncharacteristically perverse. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you some questions. The main one being, why are the dreams coming real? I mean, I dream about strange things all the time, but they don't usually come and attack me during the day. You said you were supposed to help me get oriented in the dream world. Was I supposed to have gone there, only it came here somehow?" _And why do you look like a pinball mascot, although that's probably not an important one right now._

"You go to the dream world in your dreams," said NiGHTS, with the air of one who'd just been asked what water was by someone floating in a lake. "Or rather, everyone _sees_ Nightopia when they dream, but most people don't actually _go_ there, and those who can usually can't affect it. But when the Nightmarens want to expand their lands, they have to use real-world people to do so, because most Nightmarens can't get into Nightopia without human or dokan assistance."

Tails was rather surprised to actually get an answer. Admittedly, half of it sounded like nonsense, but as long as this NiGHTS creature seemed inclined to give him any, he figured he'd better pursue the matter. "'Nightmarens' sounds like 'nightmare'. Those electric eel-things and the sheep, they were Nightmarens, weren't they? Monsters from bad dreams?"

"Exactly." There was a faint jingle as the purple cap nodded. "Everyone sees them differently, since they appear as something a given dreamer fears. The Eelons and Sheeck are only two types of third-level Nightmarens. They're not very smart - they basically can identify the person they're supposed to torment, and torment them, and that's about it. Then when you run, they can follow you, right on across the borders of Nightopia, and where one goes, the rest can too, changing the world as they do. But– " NiGHTS hesitated, tugging lightly at one tip of his hat. "_Here _is the problem. Now they're out in the waking world, they aren't able to - well, we don't know what they'll do. We're not sure if others can follow them, we aren't sure if the world can be converted to Nightmare like Nightopia can, but most importantly, there are too many people here. Even if you dream about other people, there's still only one _real_ person in your dream."

"So you don't know if they'll stay focused on me, or wander off and attack anybody who's passing,"guessed Tails. "Um, look, you might be able to just hang there in the air, but my tails are getting tired. Can we go down and talk?"

NiGHTS started to nod, then reached out towards the little fox. "Take my hand," he invited. Tails sharp ears picked up a certain amount of anticipation in the other's tone, but he seemed friendly enough, so the cub placed his own gloved hand in NiGHTS'. And, to NiGHTS' apparent astonishment, nothing happened. The hand slipped out of Tails' grip as the peculiar being did a backwards loop, then spiraled twice around Tails. Returning to the front of the cub, NiGHTS reached out again, with a hint of trepidation, to touch the puzzled fox's still-outstretched hand. Again, nothing happened. As the blue eyes beneath the purple cap widened in alarm, nothing continued to happen. Tails realized that if he didn't land soon he was going to plummet, so he started to drift downward. NiGHTS, still clearly bewildered, descended with him. The jester continued down when his feet hit the ground, collapsing into a seated position. He seemed to have forgotten Tails, staring at his gloved hands and clapping them lightly together.

"Tails!" Amy ran up, panting and waving her hammer. She glowered in NiGHTS direction, then lowered her weapon, staring at the dismayed jester. "What's going on? Is she all right? And," she dropped her voice, "isn't she the mascot of that big hotel downtown in Westopolis?"

"She?" Tails looked at the jester again. It was sort of like one of those optical illusion pictures. If you looked at NiGHTS with the thought in your mind that the jester was female, 'she' looked like an athletic female with an alto voice, but if you readjusted the pronoun to 'him', then NiGHTS became a rather youngish male with a light tenor pitch. Tails shook his head, then rubbed his eyes. Amy was frowning at NiGHTS now, and the fox cub realized that his automatic question had made her re-evaluate her own impression.

The pink hedgehog snorted, and marched up to the seated figure. "Excuse me," she said, asking the question that Tails never would have dared, "are you a 'he' or a 'she'?"

NiGHTS didn't seem to hear her at first, then looked up. "Hold out your hand."

Amy glanced at Tails, who shrugged. She looked back at NiGHTS, and with a shrug of her own, held out her free hand. NiGHTS touched his palm to hers. Nothing happened.

"What's supposed to happen?" asked Tails. "You clearly expect something to happen, so what is it?"

NiGHTS stood up - or rather, rose to a standing position. As with Reala, NiGHTS' boots didn't quite touch the ground. "I'm not sure I can explain it. I'm not either, by the way," the jester said, turning to Amy. "Male and female are waking-world concepts. In Nightopia - or Nightmare - we simply are ourselves. Generally if I'm assisting someone, they see me as the same as they are, but you can call me whichever you like. I– I was designed to relate to both genders."

"Designed?"

NiGHTS drifted back and forth as if pacing, ignoring Amy's remark. Eventually the jester stopped in front of Tails, looking down at him. "I told you, I'm supposed to help orient visitors to the dream world. Part of that is Dualizing with them. We touch hands, and then we Dualize."

"But what is Dualizing?"

"We sort of - become one. That is, the visitor's dream-self merges with me and disappears, but they can use my powers to fly and do things, and we can still talk and everything." NiGHTS trailed off a bit uncertainly. The two dokan were staring.

"That sounds kind of . . . creepy to me. Besides, if you're supposed to help Tails, then why are those sheep and eel-things trying to attack him, huh?" demanded Amy. She edged slightly between Tails and NiGHTS, hammer still firmly in hand.

"Their task is to plague the visitor until they meet me, and he hadn't met me yet. They're third-level Nightmarens. It is their duty to pursue dreamers; they feed on fear and hopelessness, and use both to extend the reach of Nightmare."

"And they've extended it here?"

"No, Nightmare is not– It only– Arrgh! I'm not supposed to have to explain things! Dreamers don't ask so many questions." NiGHTS crossed his arms and turned his back on the dokan.

"It extends into Nightopia," said Tails slowly. "As Nightmare grows, Nightopia shrinks, is that it?"

"Yes!" NiGHTS rose into the air and twirled with relief.

"So now that you're here, these third-level things will go away?" Amy persisted. "Or do they attack and you do something to them? And are they going to attack anyone else, since there's only supposed to be one real person at a time?"

NiGHTS paused in mid twirl, then sat cross-legged in the air. "That's what we don't know. The situation is . . . has changed. What is _supposed_ to happen, is that they chase me after the dreamer and I have Dualized and we use my power to cast them back to Nightmare. And no, before you ask, I don't know if I can do that now. It is **very** annoying."

"So you can't 'cast them back' unless you're Dualized?" asked Tails thoughtfully.

"No, any time I make a loop around them, they go; but while I can still loop them and send them somewhere, I don't know where I'm sending them anymore."

"You keep saying 'we'. Is that you and Reala?"

NiGHTS made a face. "Yes."

"So you're from Nightopia, and he's from Nightmare?" interjected Amy.

"Hmm," replied NiGHTS. The jester suddenly rose higher into the air, attention apparently caught by something beyond the trees. After a moment, NiGHTS dropped back to about the dokans' eye-level. "Yes. Reala is the servant of Wizeman, who rules Nightmare, and he gives orders to the second- and third-level Nightmarens. I live in Nightopia, with the lesser Nightopians." Tails flicked a glance at Amy, and met one she was flicking at him. She shook her head fractionally. _Okay, don't press him, but I think he just didn't admit to being a Nightmaren himself, and she caught it too._

"Does that make Reala a first-level Nightmaren? What's the difference in the levels, just rank?" asked the pink hedgehog.

"Oh no, it's much more than that. The third-levels are just drones. They haven't any intelligence, just the ability to identify their target and a basic instinct to pursue and attack it. Most can't even sense their targets unless they're pretty close, but that's balanced out by the fact that there are so many of them, they don't need to be very smart or capable. They end up either catching the target or herding them in the direction of a second-level Nightmaren's lair. The second-levels are a lot smarter, and tend to have - hmmm - a domain that encompasses several of the third-level types. The second-levels are like spiders, waiting at the center of a web or the end of a funnel. In the case of Queen Bella, literally. They've got more power and more cunning, but still don't do much more that go after the target once it comes into their range." NiGHTS had sunk lower and was now sitting cross-legged an inch above the ground, sketching a funnel-shaped net in the dirt. There was a pause, while the two dokan waited for him to continue. With a sigh, he finally did so, "Reala is unique among Wizeman's servants. He is fully intelligent and slavishly loyal. He also will not hesitate to turn any weakness of the dreamer," the jester cocked an eye at Tails, then frowned momentarily at Amy, "_or_ your friend, to his advantage. He will deceive you if he can, to spread the realm of Nightmare and the rule of Wizeman ever further."

"You said," started Tails slowly, "that the Nightmaren goal was to basically overwrite Nightopia with Nightmare. Can they do that into our world?"

"And where does the dream caster fit into all this?" Amy added. "Or is he this Wizeman character?"

NiGHTS blinked. "The Dreamcaster isn't a person. It's a small stone that has the abil– Are you all right?"

Tails had clapped both hands over his face with a groan. "Don't tell me," he said, "it's a small striped stone the shape of your hat."

"YES!" shouted the pastel jester. "You've seen it? Where is it?" NiGHTS erupted from his sitting position to spin a tight loop around the two-tailed fox.

"Well, uh," Tails stammered, rather alarmed by the dream-being's response. "Um, actually–"

"Yes, yes," interrupted NiGHTS, "where is it!?"

Tails gulped and said in a small voice, "At the bottom of the ocean."

"WHAT!?" NiGHTS spun on the small dokan, his blue eyes seeming to glow in fury. Tails couldn't move.


	8. Dreamdwellers

**AN: **Sorry for the extended break, but life got a bit busy. I'll try to do a bit better in the coming weeks. I did remember to put the line in at the character change, at least.

* * *

8. Dreamdwellers

"Hey!" Pink and yellow flashed before Tails' eyes as Amy swung her hammer down between the two. NiGHTS recoiled, and darted off to spiral around the area, looking like an outraged wasp, except for the color. _He's even got the stripes_, thought Tails inanely. "Back off!" said the pink hedgehog warningly.

"You'll have to forgive NiGHTS," said the cool voice of Reala. Tails and Amy turned to see the black- and red-clothed Nightmaren leaning against a tree. "He does tend to get overexcited."

"Reala!" NiGHTS dove toward the new arrival. "Do you know what these idiots have done!?"

Reala transferred his cool glare to NiGHTS. "I'm sure you're about to tell me."

"They had the Dreamcaster and they _threw_ it _away_! Tossed it into the ocean! Aarrgh!" NiGHTS darted away again.

Reala frowned thoughtfully, staring into the middle distance. Tails cleared his throat nervously and quavered, "Please, sir, what_ is _the Dreamcaster?" He hadn't intended to quaver; he squared himself up and tried to look confident, like Sonic. "I mean, what does it do?" He managed to sound more certain, that time.

Reala gave him a long, measuring look before answering. "_Exactly_ what it does, no one knows for certain. Normally, it - or they, the legends are contradictory on that point - holds power in the same manner that the dream chips do, although the Dreamcaster holds far more in spite of its smaller size. There's an old legend about a Dreamcaster being discharged and drained of energy; the end result, as you can see, is a transference of beings from Nightopia and Nightmare into the waking world. Only by recharging the Dreamcaster can the worlds be separated again."

"And I've gone and lost it," said Tails, wishing again that he'd somehow stopped Sonic from running off with the stone. There was a long pause, and the cub got the impression that Reala was trying to decide whether to say something else. He frowned up at the tall Nightmaren, trying to stare him down.

Reala frowned back, doing a rather more impressive job of it than Tails could. Then he shook his head slightly and said, "It probably doesn't matter that much anyway. We know that stone must be recharged, but the legends give no hint as to how such a thing can be accomplished."

"If we had it, we could probably figure it out," said the fox thoughtfully. "We've fixed the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald when they were broken or discharged. In fact, the Chaos Emeralds would probably be a good energy source, or do the legends suggest that the Dreamcaster needs a certain kind of energy?"

"And what's a dream chip?" added Amy.

"Dream chips are what the Nightopians use for energy. Their food, if you like," said NiGHTS, who had stopped buzzing around and was sitting cross-legged in midair. Glowering at Reala, he added, "and you can DE-energy Nightmarens with them, at least the lesser ones."

"I believe you mean 'de-energize', my dear sibling," purred Reala. "As NiGHTS says, the chips are a minor energy source, each fueled by the dreaming of one of the millions of sleepers from the waking world. As for the Dreamcaster, I've never heard that it was supposed to prefer one type of energy over another. Then again, there are only the dream energies and Master Wizeman's power where we come from." NiGHTS made a rude noise at Wizeman's name.

"What do Nightmarens eat?" asked Amy.

"Nightopians," answered Reala, imperturbably. NiGHTS growled and looked daggers at his counterpart. Literally. Reala casually caught one of the blades before it disappeared and began paring his nails. Amy and Tails edged back a few steps.

"I don't suppose you could use a dream chip to track the Dreamcaster?" offered Tails hopefully, trying to get the conversation back on track. "Or perhaps there's some sort of guardian for it?" A memory of Knuckles standing guard on the Master Emerald's shrine had prompted the latter question. Which suggested another idea as the two dream-jesters merely looked blank. "I wonder if Knuckles could track the Dreamcaster the way he could track the Master Emerald. Or use the Master Emerald to locate it, somehow. It showed him where the missing shards were, that time."

"But those were pieces of the Master Emerald itself," Amy reminded him. She sat on the ground, with her Hammer in her lap and her chin propped on her hands. NiGHTS, probably intentionally, was duplicating the pose three feet behind and two feet above her. "On the other hand, he does claim to be an expert treasure hunter. And," she raised her head and grinned wickedly at Tails, "we know who _else _makes the same claim." She stood up. "I'll talk to Rouge; you head on up to Angel Island and see if Knuckles can help us - or _will_ help us. You two . . . ." she trailed off, looking uncertainly at Reala, and at NiGHTS who was now standing behind the other Nightmaren and imitating his pose. "Well, do _something_ useful, okay?"

* * *

Knuckles, meanwhile, was standing in one of the chao gardens in Marble Gardens being perplexed. He had been jogging along one of his usual routes around Angel Island (he had six main patrols that enabled him to cover most of the island in a week, and several less-common routes that let him survey the rest of it) when his foot had struck something with a loud 'choip!'. Nothing he knew of on the Island made that sound, so he had stopped to locate whatever it was he had kicked, and found a strange, transparent blue sphere the size of an apple, with a blue light glowing in the center. He'd picked it up cautiously, but it appeared to be inert and harmless. A quick search of the area revealed no more of the things, so he'd taken it along as he continued his patrol, planning to ask Tikal or possibly Chaos about it if he saw them. As he entered the Marble Gardens region, however, he'd heard a commotion, partly outraged chao, partly . . . something else. Or some_things_ else; it sounded like a fair number of whatever they were, mingled with a similar crowd of chao. Clenching his fists so his trademark spikes stood out prominently, he'd charged into the fray . . . .

Only to find himself confronted with a mass argument between an assortment of chao on one side of a garden, and a collection of bald, cone-headed creatures that were only slightly larger on the other. The two sides weren't actually fighting, they were just yelling at each other, and now that he could hear them clearly, the echidna realized that the chao were more indignant than alarmed at the . . . invasion. Although chao babble didn't translate neatly at all, the gist of that side of the argument was _'What are you doing here? How dare you crash in uninvited!' _and similar sentiments. As for the other side, in their blue and maroon velvet suits, he couldn't understand them at all. In his confusion he accidently dropped the blue sphere he'd found, and at the chirp it made as it hit the ground, one of the 'invaders' scuttled across to snatch the globe up. Immediately it vanished, and the halo around the creatures pointed cranium brightened from orange to yellow as it flew back to the rest of its group.

Now he suddenly had everyone's attention, and the chao ran over to gather around his knees, the several Flying chao in the group collecting behind him at shoulder level. The tone of their cries now shifted to _'You're in trouble now!'_ The echidna wasn't exactly certain what to do about the coneheads, though. They didn't seem particularly dangerous, nor did they look at all like fighters. And while Knuckles was not at all opposed to fighting a variety of foes - singly or _en masse _- for sport or good reason, these velvet-clad creatures didn't seem to be either. "Who are you? And why have you come to Angel Island?" he said finally.

Silence fell as both sides stopped chattering at once. Knuckles could feel the chao's questioning looks - they were clearly disappointed that he wasn't running the interlopers off. The aforesaid interlopers, on the other hand, merely looked puzzled.

"You don't understand me, do you?" he asked resignedly. _I might have known. If these things had appeared to Sonic, they'd speak a sensible language, but since it's just me, they don't understand a word I say._

There was a sudden stir on the other side of the chao garden, and the strangers shuffled aside as a much larger one came out of the stand of fruit trees. Although otherwise identical to the rest, this individual was as large as Knuckles, and wore a crown and trailing robe as well as a velvet suit and halo. It floated forward without actually using the translucent wings on its back, similar to how the chao 'flew' . The pointed head tipped to one side and regarded the echidna eye to eye.

And somewhere in the back of Knuckles' head, the elder echidna who trained him in his dreams said, _"These are Nightopians. They do not know why they are here, or where 'here' is. But they are no threat to you or the chao."_

Knuckles spun around, looking futilely for the ancestral echidna. "I thought you only . . . appeared . . . in dreams!" There was no sign of the ancient in the flesh, although Knuckles could still see him out of the corner of his eye, superimposed over the landscape.

"_I do, and I am. The Nightopians are creatures of dreams, and therefore the King 'Pian can only communicate through them." _The image of Uaxactun drifted forward some, to where Knuckles could see him more clearly out of his left eye. The old warrior looked solid enough, but if Knuckles closed that eye, he saw the warrior against the darkened lid, and no scarred echidna in the garden. Blinking irritably, he flopped down on a long-fallen column.

"So I'm dreaming and awake at the same time?" Knuckles didn't trust this at all. If this weird conehead king was making him dream, then it was messing with his mind, and the echidna didn't care for that all. Bad enough that he tended to be inexperienced (he preferred that term to 'gullible') enough that Eggman had tricked him several times; the thought that someone could get actually into his brain directly, instead of through words or pictures, was worse by far. "And he's pretending to be you in my head? Why doesn't he be himself?"

There was a pause. _"Not exactly. He . . . asks for an image that you are inclined to listen to, and your subconscious selected me. You would not, I hope, be inclined to listen to Dr. Eggman again, for instance. But the Nightopians do not speak with words any more than the chao do, and you are long since accustomed to reading their intentions. The 'Pians can no more __**make**__ you do anything than the chao can. Essentially the King broadcasts his thoughts and your brain is translating them through me."_

Knuckles considered this carefully. He didn't entirely understand it, but he was used to that. Tails was always talking about things the echidna didn't understand, and as for Sonic, well, Knuckle might be _capable _of understanding what the hedgehog chattered about, but much of the time it was simply too far outside his frame of reference. Shadow was actually easier for Knuckles to talk to, because although their backgrounds were different they had been similarly isolated. And both were now thrust into the confusion of the world below, whether they liked it or not. Which had nothing to do with the problem at hand. He looked at the Nightopians again. _They don't seem particularly dangerous_, he decided. _They haven't offered to hurt anyone _- he'd picked that much up from the chao - _and given that the chao were all hollering at them it's no wonder they were yelling back. And the Master Emerald's shrine is on the far side of the island from here. _"What do they want?" he asked finally. "Are they planning to stay here?"

There was another pause as the King rotated slowly clockwise, his feet drifting to the left and upwards and his head moving right and down, like some sort of pinwheel. This made no apparent difference to his crown, which stayed firmly on his head, or his robe, which remained draped from his neck toward his feet. The massive 'Pian produced an insect net out of thin air and waved it around, for no reason that Knuckles could tell. The image of Uaxactun might as well have been a wax image, for it remained totally motionless. Then abruptly it came back to life. _"They would like to return to Nightopia, but since they have no idea how they came here, they have no idea how to get back. What they need immediately are more dream chips," _Uaxactun held up one of the glowing, blue globes in his spike-knuckled hand, _"and a place to gather. The king can call them all here."_

"You mean there are more of them?" Perhaps the Master Emerald wasn't as safe as he thought!

His dream guide picked up the thought - or maybe predicted it; Uaxactun had been the first Guardian, after Chaos had destroyed Pachacamac's empire and sent Angel Island skyward. _"There is no threat to the King Stone. These creatures have no interest in waking world objects, merely those that are of the realm of dreams. But they need a place to be safe from the Nightmarens while they wait for knights."_

"Knights? Like the knights of King Arthur?" Once he'd made contact with the outside world, Knuckles had become a voracious reader. Amy and Tails were generous with books they'd finished with or thought he might like, which meant he had a rather odd collection of martial, romantic and history books. King Arthur fit all three categories, to greater or lesser degree, and Knuckles had always fancied himself as Galahad.

The avatar froze again, then shook his head. _"Not knights," – _an image of armored humans on horseback galloped across the sky above him, and vanished as a pink and purple figure swooped across in front of them – _"NiGHTS. The one who turned his back on his master to defend the Nightopians."_

If Knuckles hadn't already been sitting down, he would have gone down with a thump. He recognized the flying figure. He'd hunted all over Casinopolis for fragments of the Master Emerald when Chaos had been released, and Sonic had dragged him back there several times, displaying a strange fondness for the pinball game that used this creature as its mascot. _Oooooookay. I have a bunch of bald, cone-headed creatures from a dreamworld that eat glowing blue spheres and need a safe place to wait for a pinball mascot to rescue them and take them home. And Sonic wonders why I find his world so confusing? 'Guard the Master Emerald from anyone who might steal it' is a __**whole **__lot simpler._ The red echidna sighed and combed a hand through his dreadlock spines. Finally he slid off the column to kneel among the chao. "Look," he said quietly, "the Nightopians are lost and need a place to wait. Can you," he pointed at an adult flying-type (which, come to think of it, bore a certain resemblance to NiGHTS in its color and twin horns), "guide the King 'Pian and his, um, subjects, to Mushroom Hill? The rest of you, spread out and look for those round blue things, and take them to Mushroom Hill, too. That's what the Nightopians eat, so that will keep them out of your gardens and from stealing your fruits. And if you see any other Nightopians, head them that way as well." The chao cooed at each other, then conveyed agreement. Several adults herded the infants and juveniles away to one of the other gardens, while the rest marched purposefully off to look for blue spheres. The purple flying chao glided up to the King - who deigned to turn right side up again - and then flew off in the direction of the mushroom jungle, followed by the whole crew of Nightopians. Uaxactun vanished. Knuckles rubbed his eyes and decided that he'd done enough patrolling for the day. Climbing the closest big tree, he started gliding back to the shrine.

He had to stop twice, to send small bands of Nightopians on their way to Mushroom Hill under the care of a chao guide, and made a brief detour when he spotted a heap of the dream chips glowing in the underbrush, long enough to call some more chao to start ferrying the spheres to the hill as well. Finally, though, he arrived at the shrine and hauled himself up to steps to the top.

The Master Emerald spun safely on its altar, but the massive gem was clearly agitated. Deep inside the green glow flared and shifted, and light flashed across the facets. Knuckles obediently moved forward to peer into the closest one. There was an impression of darkness and danger, and what appeared to be a swirl of disembodied hands. That facet spun slowly past and the next one showed a dark, cloaked figure towering over Angel Island's central volcano. Knuckles looked at a third, and saw a hand again, barely discernable against the darkness. Suddenly an eye flicked open in the palm, seeming to emit light like a spotlight. Involuntarily, the echidna jumped back, certain that it had seen him. But the eye closed again and the hand - he thought, it was hard to tell in the darkness around it - drifted out of the facet's viewpoint. But he got the distinct impression that it was searching for something, a particular item, along with the general malevolence. "What is it? What is it looking for?"

The response was nothing he'd expected. The facet flashed green, cleared, and displayed a stream packed full of fish. So full of fish, in fact, that some were being lifted clear of the water. "Golden salmon? That monstrous creature is looking for a fish dinner?"

He got the distinct impression that the gem was laughing at him. He remembered that the salmon spawned in Mystic Ruins. "Okay," he sighed, "I'll go down and talk to Big. If you want a fish caught, he's the one to talk to."


	9. Like and Dislike

9. Like and Dislike

NiGHTS flew away from the stupid park as fast as 'he' could. Dokan were apparently as narrow-minded as humans that way, shoving everything into one category or the other; and since the designated dreamer was male, NiGHTS got shoehorned into the same box._ Box? Boot, maybe. Or would that be 'boothorned'?_ Either way NiGHTS had far better things to do than help a silly fox who'd been stupid enough to throw the Dreamcaster - the Dreamcaster! - into the ocean. _Elliot would have been smarter than that, and Will, and Claris, and Helen, and– no, those are all from the straight-human waking world. Hmm, never helped a dokan before, but Joe was from this world, and Yukito, and Martinique, and Elise, and __**they'd**__ all have known better._ Wizeman had never showed any interest in dokan before; why was he now?

Still fuming, NiGHTS shifted from flying straight 'away' to a more upwards direction. One of the funny things about the waking world was the fact that the higher you went the colder it got, even though you were getting closer to the sun. One of NiGHTS' previous dreamers, had tried to explain it, a girl who had lived in an artificial world above the real one, where it was so cold a human could die by going outside. Sure enough, as the renegade Nightmaren climbed higher and higher, the air around got colder. And thinner. NiGHTS didn't need to breathe, but neither voice nor invisible flute worked without air to ripple through. NiGHTS dropped lower, to where people on the ground were easily visible, and put the flute to his lips. The sweet trills, beloved of the Nightopians, soothed him further. Vaguely, NiGHTS wondered where the Nightopians were - back in Nightopia, or somewhere in the waking world? - but answered himself with a mental shrug as he settled onto a convenient log. He might go looking them later, if he felt like it, but for now there was a world to explore, before the Nightmarens trashed it. Remembering that, NiGHTS opened his eyes to look around.

And blinked, because there was a blue dokan hedgehog not ten feet away, watching him. "You're pretty good. I've never seen anyone _actually_ play an invisible instrument before, just pretend to."

NiGHTS lowered the flute, and it vanished from his fingers like the dream it was. "Thank you." Blue eyes looked the new arrival up and down. Gaudy blue fur, bare arms and stomach, wearing only white gloves and red and white sneakers. "I'm NiGHTS. Who are you?"

"I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog!" The hedgehog made a sweeping bow, exuding confidence that everyone on the planet would recognize his name. "I've seen you in the casino game, and the downtown hotel, but I didn't know you were real."

The dream jester frowned, having no idea what the dokan was talking about. Only the last part of the sentence made sense. "I'm not real, I'm a dream," he pointed out.

"A dream?" Sonic quirked an eyebrow. "Nah, I've seen dreams before; they have long eyelashes and – ," he whistled, waving his hands to indicate a vaguely hourglass shape.

"Not that sort of dream," retorted NiGHTS crossly. Actually, he wasn't at all certain what an hourglass had to do with anything. Maybe it was supposed to be a ladder of some sort. But the whistle he recognized from some of the older boys he'd had to deal with, who'd greeted anything faintly female with the same sound. Which could be quite amusing when they whistled at Lady Fingers, one of the second-level Nightmarens. When she turned to 'greet' them, her razor-sharp, foot-long fingernails tended to mend their manners rather quickly. NiGHTS eyed the hedgehog, isolated his terror-point, and added, "This sort!" Before the hedgehog could react, the dream jester turned into a multicolored wave of water and crashed down around him.

Sonic shrieked, choked as his brain told him he was underwater, and flailed desperately in an attempt to swim clear – and realized he was sprawled on dry ground with a pink-white-purple puddle watching him like a blue-eyed amoeba. Point made, NiGHTS returned to his proper form –and had to leap rapidly into the air as the hedgehog curled into a ball of needle-sharp quills and spun through the air toward him. More out of curiosity than because he expected it to work, NiGHTS paralooped the hedgehog, drawing a ring of dream dust around him. But Sonic managed to evade or duck out of loop after loop, until the dream jester gave it up. Catching that ball of spines was out of the question, so NiGHTS tried one of Reala's tricks. Waiting for Sonic to land on his feet and uncurl, NiGHTS dropped to land in front of him. "You're very fast, aren't you?"

"That's why they call me Sonic," replied the hedgehog, watching the jester through narrowed green eyes. Hovering just above the ground, NiGHTS lowered the toe of one boot fractionally, just enough to touch the soil below the ankle-deep grasses. Staying low enough to keep contact - and keep both feet hidden in the grass - he began to drift sideways, as if trying to edge behind the hedgehog. As expected, Sonic turned with him, watching the jester's face.

"If you're so fast, why are you afraid of water? I'd imagine you could just run across the top of it." _Keep up the conversation, keep him distracted, and keep edging around. It doesn't matter if he thinks it's a trick, because it's not the one he'll be expecting._

"I can. I can run fast enough that I'm never in one spot long enough to break the surface tension." Involuntary pride made Sonic puff up a bit, pleased by his own talents. "But if I stop or have to slow down for some reason, I sink. Dokan don't float."

"Really?" NiGHTS filed that away and drifted another centimeter. Two. "But Tails isn't afraid of water." One of the inherent talents of the first-level Nightmarens was knowing what dreamers were afraid of; otherwise Reala couldn't assign the correct second- and third-levels to prey upon those fears.

"You know Tails?" That did surprise the hedgehog. Which surprised NiGHTS, because - since much of what he knew of the world came from the minds of his dreamers - he had thought the fox cub rather a non-entity. Tails didn't think he was talented or important, so why would someone as supposedly famous and self-important as this Sonic know about him? And NiGHTS was further surprised when the next reaction was, "You haven't attacked him too, have you?" and the blue hedgehog squaring up to resume his attack.

"No, no," NiGHTS waved a reassuring hand, which kept Sonic focused on him. He'd completed half the circle now, and behind the hedgehog he could just see the faint purple glow as his paraloop began to draw power. He continued his slow drift. "I'm supposed to help him fend off the Nightmarens. But he's got a friend helping him already, and she threatened me with a hammer. I'm not sure he needs my protection."

Sonic laughed, and relaxed slightly. "So, you met Amy then. Good, if she's helping him, that should keep her out of my way.

"And as long as she stays out of your way, everything's fine?" returned NiGHTS tartly. The hedgehog's attitude was getting on his nerves. Vain _and_ arrogant! NiGHTS couldn't stand people like that; they reminded him of Reala.

"No! –Well, yes, I'd rather her not be chasing after me, but she's very good with that hammer, and quite capable of defending Tails if he needs it. But don't you dare tell her I said that."

"I won't," promised NiGHTS, and completed his circle. The faint purple light grew much stronger and shot upward, surrounding the startled Sonic with a violet cylinder. Then the ground within the cylinder collapsed into darkness, taking the hedgehog with it. The cylinder then contracted rapidly and vanished, leaving only untouched grass where the dokan had been standing. With a grin, NiGHTS leaped up onto a nearby boulder, and began to play his flute again.

Sonic picked himself up with a grunt. And yelped as his head collided with something. By the sound, it - whatever 'it' was - was metal. Reaching up, he groped in the darkness above his head and found what felt like a - yes, metal - pipe. "Ow," he groused, as he stood up again more carefully. "Stupid know-it-all jester."

Suddenly a light was glaring into his eyes from above. "Hey! Ow," he said again, trying to shield his eyes and see past the beam of light. Someone was pointing a flashlight at him, but he couldn't make out who it was.

"Sonic?"

He closed his eyes and groaned mentally. Of all the people to find him here! Wherever here was. "Shadow? Is that you?"

"Yes. Watch your eyes, I'm turning on the light." Lights clicked on overhead, and Sonic squinted around. He was in a windowless room full of shelves and fenced-off areas full of stuff, with a flight of wooden steps leading up at one end. The black and red Ultimate Life-form stood on the landing regarding him with puzzlement. "What are you doing in the basement in the dark?"

Sonic thought of a half-dozen snap replies to a straight line like that, but settled for the truth. He'd probably end up having to explain any quip to Shadow anyway, which would spoil the humor. "I don't know. I ran into a strange character, who somehow sent me here. One minute I'm in a sunlit meadow, the next I'm in the dark. How did you know I was down here, anyway? Surely you didn't hear me hit my head on that pipe!"

The darker hedgehog frowned. "I felt an odd sort of surge, like someone using Chaos control, only different. Since I couldn't figure out why anyone would be creating surges of a strange power down here, I thought I'd better check it out." He regarded Sonic solemnly, as if he wasn't certain what to do next.

Sonic asked, "Have you ever been in Casinopolis?" He walked across the room and up the stairs to join Shadow, who led the way to the elevator.

"No. Rouge said if I went in I'd lose my socks, and I don't have very many."

Sonic snorted, then gave the other hedgehog a somewhat doubtful look. "Shadow, you _do_ know she's having you on, don't you?" Maybe Shadow did think the bat was serious.

Shadow looked Sonic dead in the eye and flashed a grin that was gone as quickly as it had appeared. "I'd wondered." Sonic grinned back in spite of himself; Shadow smiling was so rare as to be unheard of. The red-striped quills waved as Shadow shook his head. "I know - in theory, at least - what casinos are and do, but I've never been in one. I'm not certain I want to risk my money that way, considering that I only have what the government feels like paying me."

"I thought you'd taken a job with GUN?" interjected Sonic.

"I took an assignment from them, but I haven't - turn left here - I haven't decided to make it permanent." Shadow unlocked a door and the two dokan entered his apartment. Sonic looked around. The furniture was simple, sparse, and almost entirely impersonal, except for a framed photograph of Shadow, Maria, and Professor Gerald, and a second, larger portrait of the girl by herself. A potted plant had several gold rings dropped over it with the stem of the plant rising through the middle of them. In a corner a hoverboard leaned against the wall next to one of the Black Arms' floating disks. Shadow ducked into the kitchen and returned with two glasses of Chaos cola. "Is there something going on at Casinopolis you think I should know about, or do you want to know if GUN knows anything?"

"Neither. There's a game there, NiGHTS into Dreams, that I'm rather fond of, and today I ran into a person dressed just like the main character who can fly, play an invisible flute, and claims to be a dream himself. He's not dokan, and I don't think he's human either–"

"Alien?" asked Shadow sharply, clearly thinking of the Black Arms invasion.

"No. Well, he could be, but he's no relation to Black Doom, for certain. Anyway, he did something that opened up a hole in the ground and dropped me into your basement. Which is a pretty good trick, as I was about fifteen miles outside the city limits. He's not much like I imagined the character, though, so arrogant and self-centered!" Shadow raised his glass quickly, but Sonic got the impression the dark hedgehog was smiling again. He scowled. "I mean it! He demanded to know what I was doing in a public place, tried to drown me, and then teleported me away for no reason. That's practically kidnapping! He also knew something about Tails." Sonic frowned as he remembered that. What did NiGHTS want with his little brother?

Shadow's not-quite-hidden amusement vanished at once, which mollified the blue dokan somewhat. "He's after Tails? Do you know why?"

"He said he was supposed to be helping him, but – well, apparently Amy had already gone to the rescue and driven this guy off. Good for her, I'd say. Funny him turning up and claiming to be a dream, though, so soon after all that dream wizard stuff."

Shadow asked about the 'dream wizard stuff' and Sonic cheerfully launched into the grand tale of his recent exploits. "Are you certain it was a wizard involved, and not this jester person?" the dark hedgehog asked, when he finished.

"Oh, sure," answered Sonic breezily, "because they called him something - oh yes, the dream caster. So he must have been a wizard; jesters don't cast spells."

"True," said Shadow thoughtfully, although Sonic got the impression the other hedgehog didn't agree with him. It was so obvious! But then, Shadow hadn't been there, and he still didn't have a lot of experience with real life. A phone rang, and Shadow reached over to retrieve the compact cell phone from an end table. "Hello? Oh, hi Rouge. Really? No, I haven't seen anything like that. Hang on a moment." Shadow looked over at Sonic. "Rouge says that Amy came to see her and she - Amy, that is - and Tails are looking for a special power-bearing stone called a 'Dreamcaster'. Shaped like a jester's cap?" Sonic groaned and sank down in his seat, covering his eyes with one hand. Shadow smirked and returned to his phone call. "No, I'll go look there; Sonic's here now. –Yes, I do know a few other people besides you." He rolled his eyes. "Goodbye." He clicked the phone shut and looked at Sonic. "Want to show me where you tossed the stone into the ocean?"

Jet the Hawk slumped in his chair in his quarters on the Babylon Rogue's airship. Heels resting on the corner of his desk, he rocked his chair slightly on two legs in time with the engines' soft purr, while the massive propellers spun slowly, barely pushing the ship forward through the darkness. _Hmmph. Wave's still fussing about that propeller the cops shot - as if she hadn't been able to fix it within the hour! No cop is going to stop us, we're the Babylon Rogues! _Chirring softly with annoyance, Jet turned the transparent cube in his hands. The clear, colorless faces were so heavily carved that it was difficult to see through it, but if he looked hard he could see the fabric of his gloves, slightly magnified by the crystalline material. The corners of his beak quirked back up; he was Jet the Hawk, skilled leader of the Babylon Rogues, and the acknowledged Air Master. Even Wave admitted the last - he just hoped she'd realize the first and stop nagging him so much!

He looked out the window sharply, but saw nothing. Admittedly, hawk's eyes were not as efficient in darkness as they were in light, but he was getting very tired of waiting._ If that human doesn't get here soon, I'll tell Wave to rev up the engines and take us back to the desert proper._ Neither Wave nor Storm knew why he had insisted on loitering near the mountains that bordered the desert. Storm was too stupid to ask, but Wave had nagged and scolded until Jet wouldn't have told her anyway, just on general principles. _She thinks it's dangerous, waiting here. But what's danger compared to the real prize - recovering our ancient home! Neither my father nor my grandfather could find any trace of it, only this cube handed down through the generations, and they didn't know how to make it work! _Jet didn't know either, yet, but he would soon. _Very _soon, if this human 'doctor' was telling the truth.

A sudden pounding on the floor outside startled him, and the door was flung open. "Hey, boss!" Storm's massive, yellow-gloved fists crashed down on the desk hard enough to unbalance Jet, and the crystal cube fell onto the blotter as the hawk crashed to the floor, chair and all. "We've got MAJOR trouble!" the albatross bellowed over Jet's startled squawk.

"Storm! At least learn to knock before you enter a room!" That was Wave, sniping at the grey dokan already as she strode into the room.

Storm shrugged, looking around for Jet. His gaze fell on the small, transparent box and he picked it up. "What's this? Oh, is this . . ?"

Jet stood up, flicking his crest feathers back into place. "Yeah. That's when I took things over for my father." The statement might have seemed a bit of a non sequitur to an outsider, but Jet knew exactly what Storm was going to say and had heard it too many times. Nor was he interested in going into the whole tale again, of Typhoon's murder by mutineers who wanted to claim the control box for themselves. By the time the fighting was over, many adult Rogues were dead, and Lady Marahuté had decreed Jet the new leader, as was his birthright. Unfortunately, few of the remaining adult thieves were interested in following an untested teenager, and so the 'Babylon Rogues' currently had an active membership of three. That would change, though, once Jet showed them that he knew how to lead as well as he could ride the winds.

"So this is the key to the fabled Babylon Garden?" Jet recognized the glint in Wave's eye, but at least with Storm holding the box she'd have no chance to carry it off.

"I wonder . . . ." mused the grey albatross, apparently oblivious to the swallow's comment. But then, it always seemed to take longer for sound to travel from Storm's ears to his brain than with most people. "Could it be true? Could our ancestors have left behind hidden treasure that's just waiting to be discovered?" Jet nodded his head; it was one of the basic beliefs he'd been raised with, as fundamental as the existence of the lost 'homeland' itself. Babylon Garden existed, therefore the treasure hidden therein existed as well.

"Hmmm," said Wave as she reached for the box. Storm snatched it out of her reach.

"Uhn-uh! If you get your greasy little hands on this, you'll probably use it in some crazy experiment of yours!" _Bad move, Storm_, thought Jet as he righted his chair._ Wave hates being called greasy, even if she is a mechanic. _

But for once the swallow let the insult pass. "Oh come on; I only want to _look_ at it!"

"You always say you _only_ want this or that," countered Storm, still holding the cube out of her reach. Jet flopped into his chair and glowered at both of them, but neither noticed. The albatross continued, "Remember the teachings of our ancestors: 'Be careful what you ask for, ultimately you'll only get three true wishes.'"

The green-feathered hawk had had enough. "Oh be quiet!" he snapped, rousing his feathers in irritation. Why'd you burst in here, anyway?"

To his gratification, the other two actually stopped arguing. Storm scowled with concentration and began, "Well uh, an egg head? Egg, salad? No . . . ."

Wave nudged in front of him and planted both hands on Jet's desk. "Someone called Eggman wants to speak to you."

Storm shoved her aside. "He told me that he has an interesting proposition for you," the gray bird recited. Jet was impressed. 'Proposition' was well above Storm's usual vocabulary.

Wave jostled him back, but with noticeably less effect. "Stop interrupting!" They got into a shoving match. "Knock it off!" Jet sat up sharply, his crest feathers rising even more, and the two stopped pushing and turned their backs to each other with snorts of disgust.

And a very large human strolled into the room and cleared his throat. "Am I interrupting anything?"

Jet slicked his feathers down and tried to mask his annoyance with his Rogues. "So then, I heard you wanted to see me?" He hadn't realized quite how big this Eggman was over the vidscreen, when they'd set up this meeting. But they had agreed that Wave and Storm were not to know that the meeting had been planned.

" Are you Jet, the legendary Rogue?" Eggman was following the agreement thus far, which was encouraging. "Your reputation precedes you. I've heard so much about your infamous group."

Which meant that the human had done his homework and looked up information on the Rogues. Although successful, they were hardly the stuff of world news reports. Jet generally enjoyed flattery, but he was still annoyed with his subordinates. Besides, it was getting late. "Enough! What do you want?"

"Well now," began the Doctor, genially. "I heard a rumor . . ." - one hand twiddled with his impressive red mustache - "a rumor that you have the key to Babylon Garden. Now, could this be true?" It was difficult to see his eyes behind his dark glasses, but by the light glinting on the lenses, he was looking at the box that Storm still held up. Storm started, looked at the box in panic, then stuck it behind his back and tried to whistle nonchalantly.

Jet could have clobbered him. He'd intended to put the crystal cube back into its hiding place before Eggman arrived . . . . _Too late now, best play dumb. I'll bet he thinks it a key to a lock, rather than the kind it truly is. _"Huh?" he said aloud. "What's this key?"

The human chortled like a bad imitation of Santa Claus. "Really now," he purred, "you don't have to be so distrusting . . . ." His voice trailed off as he eyed the green hawk speculatively. With a slight nod, as if reaching a decision, he stepped toward Jet. "Were you aware of this? I imagine not, yet. The key to Babylon Garden is –" his voice dropped as he leaned down to whisper in the hawk's ear - or where he guessed it hid under the feathers, "– currently inactive, but if you can gather the seven Chaos Emeralds then the key can be made to function again. I can help you locate and obtain the Emeralds in exchange for letting me survey the technology of Babylon Garden when you recover it."

Jet's eyes widened, then cut towards Doctor Eggman. He was well aware of Wave and Storm on the other side of the desk, trying for all they were worth to eavesdrop . He narrowed his eyes again, considering_. A survey of our technology, hmm? Somehow I doubt it. But still, if we can reclaim the Garden . . . . _Legends spoke of untold riches - which was what he guessed this Doctor was truly after - but also powerful defenses keyed to the Rogues and their gryphon allies. _The Doctor may find more technology than he bargains for. But merely reclaiming Babylon Garden will give __**us**__ not only the treasures therein but a new base of operations - IF it can be done. But what is there to lose?_ At last he chuckled, briefly. "So let me get this straight," he said, turning to face the human, "we just need to collect all these Chaos Emeralds, right?" The overgrown moustache bobbed as Eggman nodded. "Sounds easy."

Eggman stepped back, lacing his fingers together. "You really think so, eh?"

Jet scowled and felt the feathers rise at his nape again. "What do you mean? Are you saying the Babylon Rogues aren't capable of stealing some puny emeralds?"

"No, of course not," replied the man soothingly. "But," he tapped a few buttons on his coat sleeve that were apparently more than mere fasteners. A two-dimensional hologram appeared above his wrist, showing a blue dokan hedgehog with numbers and words flickering about him. Wave made a soft sound as if she recognized him. Jet didn't, but had to concede that he _did _look vaguely familiar. The Doctor continued, "He's called Sonic, and said to be the fastest creature on Earth. I've had many, many dreadful encounters with this pest."

Jet caught the sudden edge to the human's voice, that said more clearly than words that the hedgehog had not been the one to lose in most of those encounters. But still, how could even the fastest dokan _on Earth _challenge one who had mastered the sky? "Hmph. He may be the fastest creature on the ground, but in the air, with me and my Extreme Gear, he's just a joke." The other two Rogues joined Jet's laughter, eager for the change to recover their heritage.


	10. Two Searches Commence

10. Two Searches Commence

Sonic the Hedgehog stood on the sand at Emerald Beach, well above the high tide line. "I don't know what you think you're going to find," he said, for about the tenth time, "I flung it out as far as it would go. If it's not sunk to the bottom, it must have washed away in the current." Shadow, wading carefully through the surf, ignored him. The black hedgehog stopped short as a larger wave came in, foaming around his knees high enough to submerge the flashes of red fur on his outer calves, then stepped carefully forward again when the water depth dropped back to ankle-height. Sonic wasn't certain if the other's uncertainty about the waves was consoling (since it justified his own concern) or laughable (since the Ultimate Life-form was nervous about mere water). "Shadow, do you know how to swim?"

It took a moment for Shadow to realize that this was a new question, then he raised his head and gave the blue dokan a thoughtful stare. "Yes, I know _how_ to swim," he said finally, "but it was in my flash training I was given before I woke up. I've–" he broke off as an unusually high wave whacked him at waist-height, forcing him to spread his arms for balance. "I've never actually tried it," he concluded quietly, shaking salt water from his striped quills. "And if you'll forgive my saying so, you're not really the person I'd prefer to have standing by if I'm about to get washed out to sea. Do you think it's getting rougher?"

Sonic considered the waves. He wasn't particularly offended by Shadow's last comment, because he could see his point. And he had to concede that it took more courage than _he_ was currently showing to wade into the water knowing you might get into trouble and didn't have anyone to rescue you on hand. "Yeah, I think it is. The waves are certainly faster, and the angle has changed. Look, why don't we go find Knuckles? He can swim, and even if he won't help search, he _will _be able to jump in to save you if you need it. And I don't think I can afford the bill if GUN decides to charge me with losing the Ultimate Life-form."

Shadow snorted as he stepped clear of the waves and tried to shake the water off his feet. He hiked up the beach to join Sonic and picked up one of the socks he'd left tucked into his hover shoes, then paused. He looked at the sock, and then at the now-sandy sole of his foot. He tried to brush off the sand, and found it adhered to the damp fur and skin (and now to his glove as well). He took a swipe at his foot with his sock, then realized that he now had sand on the sock as well as on his foot, and it wouldn't brush loose from either site. He put his foot down and realized he'd just replaced whatever sand he had brushed off - and then some.

Sonic laughed. "Welcome to the eternal dilemma of the beach. Try these." He offered Shadow a pair of red-and-white flip-flops. "You really don't want to put that sock back in your shoe until you get the sand off; you'll get blisters. There's a shower up by the street where you can rinse it and your feet off."

He led Shadow up the beach to the public shower. After the black hedgehog had rinsed his feet off and his sock out, he put his hover shoes on and the two hedgehogs headed for Station Square, so named because it was the area around the local train station. Weaving their way through the tourists that had recently disembarked for fun in the sun on Emerald Beach - with perhaps a few side trips to Casinopolis or the night life downtown in Night Babylon - they reached the ticket counter. Shadow pointed out a notice posted overhead. "Look Sonic, it says there aren't any trains running to Mystic Ruins until next Tuesday."

Sonic shrugged. "That shouldn't be a problem for us. Excuse me, sir," he said to the human at the counter, "why aren't the trains running to Mystic Ruins for the next few days?"

"Oh my, you're Sonic the Hedgehog!" The young man, who had been looking seriously bored, straightened up at once. "Um, the trains? Oh, they're doing some minor repairs on the bridge over the water - nothing serious, but they can't get the equipment out on the bridge while the trains are crossing it every few hours. So the track is closed until Tuesday. Um, um, I hate to bother you, but . . . . "

"What would you like me to autograph?" asked Sonic with a cheerful grin, recognizing the signs. Scrawling his name on an eagerly proffered sheet of paper, he said to Shadow, "See, Shadow? The train can't go out, but we can get past the equipment just fine. And using the tracks means we can go directly across the bay rather than the long way round. Here," he abruptly thrust the paper and pen at the black hedgehog, "you should sign this too." Shadow blinked at the paper, which now had 'Best wishes and keep running! Sonic the Hedgehog' written across it. He glanced at the young man, who had a hopeful look on his face. He looked back to Sonic, clearly having no idea what he was being asked to do. "C'mon, Shadow," encouraged the blue hedgehog, "just sign your name."

Still looking doubtful, Shadow took the pen and wrote 'Shadow the Hedgehog' in beautiful copperplate script. After a brief pause, he quickly added 'The Ultimate Life-form' beneath his name, and thrust the paper back at Sonic, who read it, smirked, and handed it to the clerk. "Oh thank you!" gasped the clerk, and hurriedly put the paper somewhere under the counter. Suddenly formal he straightened and said, "Have a good day, and I'm sorry I couldn't help you with your travel plans." Following his gaze, Sonic spotted a uniformed man approaching, whose posture said 'boss'.

"That's all right," said Shadow, "you've been most helpful." He grabbed Sonic's arm and pulled him away. "You do realize that it's illegal to travel on train tracks if you aren't a train? Or at least an employee of the rail company?" he muttered.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, but I do it all the time; I can get off before the engineer ever sees me, and I always watch where I'm going. Besides, it really is the fastest way."

"I understand that. My point is, you just told an employee of the rail company that we were going to be running on the tracks."

"Oh. Well, I don't think he'll tell on us. Come on, we should get out of town a bit before we head for Mystic Ruins. Don't want any kids to see what we're about to do." Sonic jogged off; Shadow shook his head, but followed after.

It was a nice day for a run, and before long Sonic was running along between the rails with Shadow gliding just outside them. "This reminds me a bit too much of that stupid base Doctor Eggman had," muttered the black hedgehog.

"With the rails going every-which-way through the canyons?" asked Sonic. "That was a bit odd even for Eggman, but did you see those cannon things with the crazy capsules? Knux and I never did figure those out, but Tails thought it might be some sort of emergency escape device."

"Those were - how did Omega put it? Oh yes, those were 'high velocity supply transfer devices'. We actually got ourselves fired off through one of them."

"Yeah, we did too. You gotta admit, Eggman does at least keep life interesting. Look, there's the bridge." A few minutes later the two hedgehogs were vaulting over several trucks and trailers parked on the bridge, without a workman in sight. Sonic noted in passing that the vehicles had railcar-type wheels that were currently riding the tracks, with normal ones raised to the sides. He'd seen them before, but Shadow slowed for a closer look. Sonic started to slow, himself, but a swirl of green motes below caught his eye. "Look, Shadow!" Sonic pointed to the green blobs, which were rising quickly through the air towards the two hedgehogs. "Ever seen green seahorses before?" He sped up again, and Shadow caught up, while the oversized seahorses tried to catch up.

"They must be Nightmarens. But didn't you say they were supposed to be targeting Tails?" The seahorses, a rather nauseating green splashed with pink, were blowing streams of large bubbles that closed in on the two dokan in blithe disregard of comparative speeds and wind direction.

"Apparently they don't care who they go after in the real world," replied the blue hedgehog as he dodged several bubbles trying to surround him. And then vaulted over an equine head rising between the railroad ties

Shadow batted at one pastel bubble and grunted. "Don't touch them," he warned Sonic, "they'll make your hand go numb."

Sonic's eyes went wide as he jumped and hopped from side to side as bubbles swirled around him. "It's not my hands I'm worried about!" A cold chill ran along his spine at the thought of the bubbles numbing his legs and sending him sixty feet down into the deep water. Somehow he didn't think the seahorses would go away and let him cling to the track supports, and he doubted that the bay held any convenient air pockets or bubble streams.

"Watch it!" Suddenly Shadow yanked him sideways, almost throwing both of them off the track. Sonic opened his mouth to complain, then realized that the bubble he'd been about to brush past was actually a fish, which raised nasty-looking spikes as the hedgehogs slipped past. Shadow shoved Sonic back to his side of the track and hissed, "_Run!_" Suiting action to words, the Ultimate Life-form practically vanished in a blur of golden light. Sonic dodged a second puffer fish and kicked into high gear himself. Even dreams couldn't keep up with Sonic the Hedgehog at top speed.

Once they'd left the floating seahorses and porcupine fish behind, the two dokan reduced their speed slightly, but didn't really return to what most people would consider a 'normal' run until they reached Mystic Ruins. Sonic had already spotted the snowcaps of Angel Island hanging over the jungle, although as they drew nearer the cliff between the arrival area and the jungle had hidden them from view. Dropping down off the railroad bridge, Sonic took a confident lead toward the mineshaft that penetrated the cliff. Shadow looked dubious when the blue hedgehog climbed into the waiting mine car, but joined him without protest. Several bumpy minutes later they emerged on the other side of the cliff into the bowl that had once held the capital city of the Echidnan Empire.

Sonic grinned at Shadow's stunned stare. He had to admit, it was a pretty impressive view. He'd seen plenty of scenery in his travels, but nothing quite compared with the huge sweep of jungle, surrounded by a three-quarter arc of vertical cliffs, with the open side dropping straight down into more jungle. This latter area, actually a basin formed when the land mass now called Angel Island was ripped away from the rest of the Echidnan capitol, was currently overshadowed by the island itself. The island's ground level was probably a quarter mile above where it had originally been, but the central snow-capped peak and its smaller fellows were easily visible above the variegated jungles, and a flash of gold near one edge marked the island's small, incongruous desert.

Shadow gaped at the view, and then at the island itself, then looked around at the encircling cliffs again. "A caldera?"

Sonic nodded. "That's Tails' theory. He says either that or an ancient meteor strike, but favors the caldera because of the remaining volcano on Angel Island."

The black hedgehog blinked, and stared at the island again. "That flying island - has a live volcano? You're kidding."

"No," Sonic was mildly surprised. "Don't you know about Angel Island? I mean, I thought Gerald did a bunch of preliminary research there."

Shadow hesitated, then frowned in puzzlement. "Actually, it's rather strange. Professor Gerald did do research there, and I know where he was and what he discovered . . . but I don't have anything in my flash training or since I awoke about the island itself. I've only ever seen a picture of it after - after Doctor Eggman woke me up, I think."

Sonic looked at his companion curiously, but decided this wasn't the time to pursue the matter. He knew that if Shadow didn't 'think' he'd seen the Island before his time in suspension then he had _not_ seen it; although the strain of the fall from the ARK and Shadow's recovery at Eggman's hands had caused a temporary amnesia, the Ultimate Life-form also had an ultimate memory. Which made Sonic very uncomfortable at the thought of certain of Shadow's memories - some things shouldn't be remembered too clearly. "Well, we'll have to get Knuckles to give you the tour then, once we get this dream-business sorted out. You want to take the ladder down, or go the quick way?"

"The quick--" Sonic barely heard the question; scorning the hundred-foot climb, he'd already dashed off the edge. Momentum and a quick jump enabled him to land in the closest tree, and from there the blue hedgehog worked his way along a massive limb to an intersecting one. The jungle vegetation was tall and thick enough that one could travel on it for a fair ways, but Sonic dropped to the ground at the first path he came across. Shadow caught up with him a moment after, trailing behind as Sonic jogged down the leaf-strewn trail.

Eventually Shadow asked why the trail was there. "It's one of the old roads from the Empire," Sonic explained. "The path itself stays clear because there are these big stone blocks still down there, under the leaves and dirt, and Big patrols the area and keeps the branches and vines cut back. And there are human explorers out here too, from time to time, and they clear it as well. Knuckles has said they can't cut any new paths, or any of the big trees. There's a lot of political debate over whether he's got the right to say such things or not, but most of the people that actually come here go along with it."

"I'd imagine a good look at his fists would tend to be persuasive for most humans."

"Yeah. Hey, look at that!" Sonic stopped as he reached a stream that was bank-to-bank fish. "I've never seen all these guys before. We could just about walk across them and not get our feet wet." He crouched down to get a closer look

Shadow leaned past him, snatched a fish from the writhing mass, and studied it a moment. "Golden salmon," he said in a slightly distant voice. "Sometimes called king salmon. Originally runs occurred along a five hundred-mile stretch of coastline, but now the only intact runs occur in the Greater Tarnish River and in the Mystic Ruins. It is still unclear how the fish reach the Mystic Ruins, but several creeks appear to cross under or through the cliff surrounding the bejungled hollow."

"I wish you wouldn't do that," said Sonic with a shiver, as Shadow put the fish back down. It flopped along the backs of its brethren for nearly three feet before finding room to get back into the water. "That tone of voice gives me the creeps."

Shadow shrugged. "Sorry, I thought you wanted to know about the fish." He jumped across the creek. "Shall we continue?"

Sonic jumped over the water and took the lead again. _Just when I think he's halfway normal, he goes and does something like that again. Sheesh. _He led Shadow past the Echidnan temple without slowing down, then the path emerged from the jungle to run along the edge above the deeper valley. Angel Island loomed above them. Sonic waved a hand at a corroded metal arch that tailed off into a few scraps on the very brink of the pit. "That used to be one of Eggman's bases, until I shut it down. Now, somewhere along here should be that elevator Tails adapted . . . ." His voice trailed off as he started searching through the bushes near the ruined door.

What he found was a pair of bright red shoes with blocky yellow fasteners. "Lose something, Sonic?" said Knuckles. Sonic jumped upright and glared at the echidna, hearing Shadow's snort of amusement behind him. The echidna had a string of the golden salmon in one hand, and a net full of wild grapes over his shoulder.

Sonic ran a hand through his quills and imagined himself combing off his irritation. He needed Knuckles' help, much as it galled him to have to ask for it, and making the echidna mad would be counterproductive even if entertaining. "Actually, I have," he said. "You say you're a good treasure hunter, and I've lost a small but apparently valuable stone."

"A gem?" Knuckles' eyes lit up at the prospect of a treasure hunt, but his tone said he clearly didn't see why Sonic would be looking for treasure.

"Not exactly." Sonic sighed, and gave the red echidna a summary of the Dreamcaster, although he didn't say that he'd been the one who'd tossed it into the ocean. Fortunately Shadow forbore to add that fact, although even Knuckles could probably work it out from the rest of the story.

If the echidna noticed the omission, he didn't comment on it. He put down his net and lay the fish on top of it, eyes half-closed in thought. "Emerald Beach, huh? The currents there would have moved it right down the coast." He turned and looked at the cliff separating the Mystic Ruins from the train station. "Could be out in the bay, actually. Probably went right past the Emerald Coast resort the day after you tossed it out. There's a raft we can use moored under the station; they use it to check the pilings, but I don't think anyone will notice if we borrow it for a bit."

Sonic agreed readily, but Shadow objected. "You're suggesting we steal the raft from the station?"

"Not steal," Knuckles waved the idea away, "_borrow_. There's usually not anyone at the station to ask, anyway; we'll just borrow it and have it back before anyone needs it. Why shouldn't we use it if no one else is?"

Shadow seemed rather dubious, but Sonic agreed with the echidna. "You saw the trucks and things on the rails, Shadow, without a soul in sight. With no trains coming in, there won't be any workers at the station either, and there's no sense in running all the way back to Station Square - or wherever the headquarters are, most likely - to ask some bureaucrat to borrow a raft he's never seen or heard of. We're not going to damage it, so where's the harm?"

"Those nightmare things might damage it," pointed out the dark hedgehog.

Sonic sighed in exasperation. "If they do, I'll pay for repairs, I promise. _Now_ can we go?" _Who made Shadow a policeman anyway? I thought he said he'd turned G.U.N. down!_

"Very well." Shadow gave in. "But I'll hold you to that promise." Sonic rolled his eyes.

* * *

Storm thudded along the deck of the Babylon airship, wishing that something interesting would happen. The Egg-human had told Jet his plan: to hold a series of hoverboard races to both distract this Sonic-Hedgehog person and trick him into turning a Chaos Emerald - whatever that was - over to the Egg-human. That would be fun, even though there really wasn't anyone out there who could give the Babylon Rogues a good race on their hoverboards. But first, the Rogues had to find an Emerald of their own to enter the race with. "To show good faith," the Egg-human had said. Storm wasn't certain about the difference between good faith and bad faith, but he was certainly getting very bored. Jet was alternately prowling about the ship playing captain or sitting in his chair daydreaming of victory, and Wave was hunched down in the control room over some thing of the Egg-human's that was supposed to lead them to an Emerald. Both were snarly when interrupted, so Storm had come up to patrol the deck, even though there was really nothing to guard against. He stopped as the deck hatch flew open - was something happening at last?

Jet's head rose through the hatch. "Storm! Stop stamping around like that; you're shaking the whole ship. Can't you find something_ useful_ to do?" The head withdrew and the hatch slammed shut again.


	11. Mission Accomplished

11. Mission Accomplished . . .

Sonic stood in the center of the raft, wishing that the waves didn't keep splashing up between two of the boards in front of him. Actually he wished he was anywhere else but here, even up in space battling the Death Egg again. He fidgeted, shuffling his feet on the rough wood. Shadow sat in the back by the tiller, as inhumanly (indokanly?) calm as he usually was, scanning the water with his crimson eyes. The equally crimson form of the echidna was down _there_, somewhere, scouring the bottom of the bay for the stone that Sonic had lost. This made him feel guilty, and guilt and nerves were an uncomfortable combination, even without the embarrassment of having Shadow present to witness them._ At least Shadow has the tact to pretend to ignore me. For once, I __**do**__ want to be ignored._ The blue hedgehog tried to look around for Knuckles, but that just hammered home the fact that he was in the middle of a whole lot of water, without enough room for a running start that would let him race across the top to safety if needed.

"Sonic?" Shadow's voice nearly made him jump out of his skin. He glanced over at the red-striped hedgehog. "Rouge said that Amy told her that this stone had some sort of power. Did you notice anything like that when you had it?"

"I'd hardly have thrown it away if I had," Sonic snapped. He shook his head. "Sorry, Shadow. I just . . . ." He let his voice trail off. He was NOT going to say he was scar– nervous. He didn't dare look at the other hedgehog, though.

"Don't worry about Tails," said Shadow. "He's a smart kid."

Sonic blinked, then snuck a peek at the black dokan, wondering if he was being made fun of. But Shadow was still scanning the water, one hand shading his eyes, the other on the tiller. Surely he knew why Sonic was on edge! _Of course he does, stupid. He just doesn't want to pick a fight out here since he can't swim any better than I can. Either that or he's being nice._ Sonic regarded the latter thought doubtfully, then discarded it. _'Nice' and 'Shadow' don't go together._ Although . . . had he ever, since the ARK was destroyed, been given the chance? Sonic ran the calculations in his head. _Fifty years, give or take a few, in suspended animation in the Prison Island base; a week between when Eggman woke him up and we stopped the ARK's attempted plummet; that time while everyone thought he was dead when he was really healing in another suspension capsule in Eggman's lair, then what - two days, maybe three for the Metal Sonic ego-trip, followed right after by Black Doom' abortive invasion. And then the Gizoid. Sheesh, the poor guy's had less than two months to himself that he's actually been awake since Maria died!_

Sonic considered the total with surprise, and a bit of shame. Certainly two months wasn't nearly enough time to be done mourning someone as close to you as Maria had apparently been to Shadow. He made a mental note to be more thoughtful in the future. But there was something he'd been wondering about. "Shadow?"

"Hmm?"

"Why are you helping me? I mean, I got Tails into this mess, and he pulled Amy in by accident, but you - and Rouge - aren't really involved. So, why are you out here?"

"Well, for starters, Rouge isn't helping. She–" Shadow gave Sonic a faintly amused look. "She's ostensibly on a mission from G.U.N. to find out what Dr. Eggman's up to with this hoverboard race, but," he glanced quickly around the raft to see if Knuckles had resurfaced, then lowered his voice, "I suspect she's hoping no one will notice if the Chaos Emerald she's retrieving just disappears afterward." He forestalled Sonic's startled reply by continuing, "She asked me to help you get Knuckles involved in this so he couldn't object to her hunting for one. Although that's not why I'm out here."

"Knuckles doesn't really care about the Chaos Emeralds, unless she's hunting one on Angel Island itself," Sonic pointed out. "He gave up guarding them after the Death Egg crashed. So why _are_ you here, then?"

Shadow became very interested in the scuffed toes of his hover shoes. "Actually, it's because of this jester you mentioned. And . . . Maria," he mumbled.

_Maria? _Sonic knew that Shadow's 'big sister' was frequently the root cause of his actions, but he failed to see the connection. "How does - Maria - tie in with a casino mascot? I don't think Casinopolis is fifty years old."

It was Shadow's turn to avoid Sonic's eyes. "No, it's not. But I did a little research, and NiGHTS is supposed to be based off a character that the owner 'met' in a dream when he was a boy. He claims the dream changed his life, and that's why he adopted the character as the mascot for his casino and hotel. I hadn't really made the connection before, although I thought, when I first saw the billboards downtown, that there was something familiar about that mascot." There was a long pause, during which Knuckles popped his head up and then dove back under again. Shadow was staring through the boards of the raft at something that was fifty years gone. Finally he spoke again, just before Sonic's patience gave out. "I'd never actually seen her, but I'd had her described to me. Maria had a dream about NiGHTS once, one day when she was feeling rather bleak about her future. This was right before I was created, I think, but she told me about it about a year after I was awakened. She talked about this jester, in a pretty pink and purple outfit who took her flying through her dreams and helped her fight off some nightmarish version of her illness and sort of representations of doctors who only saw her as a case, as her NIDS, not as a person; she said that after she woke up she realized that she'd been forgetting that there was more to 'Maria' than just the disease." He caught Sonic's expression and shrugged slightly. "It made sense to her. Anyway, I don't think this jester is really a threat to Tails, but those nightmare things could be a threat to this world - and they'll certainly make people unhappy."

"So since you promised Maria to make people happy, you're going to help us send the lot home," Sonic finished for him. Tails had said that Amy had thought this NiGHTS was female at first, and apparently Maria had made the same mistake. "Huh. Maybe we'll turn you into a good guy yet." Shadow raised a scarlet eyebrow but didn't reply. Clearly, he felt he'd said all that needed saying.

A few moments later, Knuckles erupted from the water. Shaking spray from his dreadlock spines, he hauled himself onto the raft. "No luck," he scowled. "Nothing but scads of salmon heading for the underpasses to the jungle."

Sonic grimaced. He'd really been counting on Knuckles being able to find the thing. _Maybe we'd be better off getting a Chaos Emerald first, to try and recharge it with? Or collecting some of those dream chips; Knuckles said they're on Angel Island now. Maybe one of these Nightopians could help look for the Dreamcaster? _Although, from Knuckles' description they didn't sound very useful, even their King. _Dunno, locating a Chaos Emerald might be best–_ Sonic looked up. "Shadow," he said suddenly, as that thought connected to something the black hedgehog had said earlier, "why does Rouge need a Chaos Emerald to look into a hoverboard race?"

"Because that's the entrance fee."

Knuckles frowned at the change of topic, but the mention of a Chaos Emerald had his full attention. "Not going to have too many competitors then, are they? There are only seven Chaos Emeralds out there."

"It's a team fee," said Shadow. "You can enter a team of four with each Emerald, and I suppose there's an alternative entry as well; there are five or six qualifying races and then the World Cup. Rouge says there's some hawk who calls himself the 'Legendary Wind Master' or some such, who says he's going to win. Says he's the fastest thing on the planet."

"Oh really?" said Sonic mildly. "So Rouge is entering herself, and who else?"

"Me. And a couple of G.U.N. agents that are fond of the sport."

"Can you ride a hoverboard?" asked Sonic. He'd ridden snowboards before but never tried a hoverboard.

"I can ride most things," said Shadow simply. "My flash training covered an amazing number of motorized and non-motorized vehicles, but since the original hoverboards were produced by the Professor's son, I actually _learned _to ride them back on the ARK with Maria. That's where my hover shoes came from too, you know."

"Can we get back now?" interjected Knuckles, standing up and stripping the water out of his fur with his hands. "I told you about those things on my island, and I need to get back there with the fish."

"What's the difference between the flash training and learning?" asked Sonic. The echidna scowled again as Sonic ignored him, and leaned past Shadow to start the raft's little motor.

"Probably the same as Knuckles finds between what he's learned in his dreams and things he's actually done." Shadow nodded at the echidna, who merely grunted. The black hedgehog stepped away from the tiller so the echidna could steer and continued, "The flash training is just there. No memories of learning it, no little tricks picked up along the way, just - I know it or I don't. I could take this engine apart and put it back together again, but I couldn't adjust it like Tails does; I don't know how to tighten this and loosen that and improve the result.

"Which reminds me, do you think he'd be able to take a look at my hoverboard before the race? Rouge bought me one, but my understanding is that modified boards tend to do better than straight-off-the-shelf ones."

"Oh, sure," said Sonic. "Since you're helping us look for the Dreamcaster, I'm sure he'd be delighted to look at your board for you. But you say Eggman's involved?"

"Worry about Eggman later," said Knuckles, as they docked the raft below the train station. "I want to get those Nightopians off Angel Island before I have a war to deal with. Some of them are rubbing some of the chao the wrong way, and both groups tend to gang up in support of their own."

Sonic sighed, partly in relief as he was able to scramble up the ladder (and therefore away from the water), and partly in irritation. Knuckles _had_ filled the two hedgehogs in on these Nightopians and their dream-speech, and the odd blue spheres - which were apparently the dream chips that had been mentioned to Tails and Amy, but the echidna had admitted that the creatures weren't actually fighting the chao, so Sonic didn't see the problem. Surely nightmare creatures that were on the loose and attacking people were the more urgent problem. Besides, he wasn't convinced that Eggman wasn't behind this somehow; the human had recently developed a habit of unleashing things he then couldn't control.

But as Sonic reached the station platform, movement out over the water caught his eye. For an instant he thought it was some sort of plane, the he saw that whatever it was was as flat as the raft they'd left below. Shadow and Knuckles joined him at the guardrail, staring at the strange thing gliding back and forth in what appeared to be a search pattern. Suddenly Knuckles gasped and, grabbing the hedgehogs, dove through the unglazed window into the station. His massive hand landed on top of Sonic's head and shoved him down below the sill level, and his other forced Shadow down as well, while he dropped into a crouch along with them. "That's one of those hand things I saw in the Master Emerald," he whispered. "I'll bet it's looking for that Dreamcaster stone too." Startled out of his reflexive annoyance, Sonic peered through a crack in the rough board wall, and saw that the object out there was indeed a giant hand, a good ten or fifteen feet long from fingertip to heel. As the thing suddenly reared up perpendicular to the water and rotated, he saw an eye embedded in the center of the palm.

"Wizeman," he breathed. The other two glanced at him. "In the casino game, the one with NiGHTS in it, Reala is the main evil henchman, and Wizeman is the ruler of Nightmare, the one who actually controls and sends the bad dreams. He's got about a dozen hands with eyes in them, that float around so he can see what's going on."

"Yeah I saw him in the Master Emerald as well, I think. And then those silly fish . . . ." Knuckles' voice trailed off as he gazed blankly at the wall in front of him. "No," he said under his breath, shaking his head. With a muttered curse, he jumped to his feet. "Come on! I know where this thing is!"

Gliding off the station balcony, he led the way back to the mine tunnel, and then through the jungle to a treehouse Sonic immediately recognized as Big's. It wasn't the sort where the house was built up in the branches, but a house built around and into a massive hollow stump. A branch of the stream ran beside it. Big himself was kneeling at the edge of a pit and leaning into it, with a pile of gutted fish lying on some massive leaves beside him. Froggy perched on a stub of branch remaining on the ancient stump, tossing a small object in his mouth and catching it with his tongue.

As they approached Big sat back up, with smoke now rising from the pit in front of him. He looked around and spotted the approaching dokan. "Hello!" He waved cheerfully. "You're too early; I haven't started cooking them yet."

Sonic grinned. "We didn't come to eat, but thanks. We're looking for a little striped stone, called the Dreamcaster. Have you seen it?"

Big considered this at length. "No," he answered finally, "I wasn't looking for stones today, I was looking for fish. I got enough stones last time." He looked into the pit. Sonic followed his gaze and saw that the pit was lined with large stones, with a fire built in the middle of it. "They're big and they don't have stripes," the purple tabby added.

"You're right," Sonic agreed, "they don't." He looked at Knuckles. "I thought you said Big had it?"

Knuckles was looking up the thirty-foot stump at the frog doing his catch act on the sheared-off branch. "No, I didn't say Big had it, I said I knew where it was." He pointed. "Up there. Froggy has it."

"Hmmmm?" Big looked up. "Oh, that. Froggy found that while I was fishing. He said it fell out of one of the pretty salmon." He held up his arms. "Come down, Froggy."

The yellow-speckled frog obediently dropped off the branch, but landed on the cat's head, rather than his outstretched hands.. Sensing what was coming, Sonic tensed, then leaped to intercept the frog as it tried to flee. "Gotcha!" The hedgehog remembered too well the frog's propensity for playing hide and seek. The beautiful gold-flecked eyes glared at him, then, with the amphibian equivalent of a shrug, Froggy spit his prize into Sonic's hand. Sonic handed the frog back to Big and displayed the small, tooth-shaped stone with a flourish. "Ta-da!" Big started lecturing Froggy, but Knuckles and Shadow crowded around to look. "The Dreamcaster!" The stripes gleamed brightly in the sun, but there was still no inner glow, no feel of life, no unusual warmth to indicate that the object was anything more than what it looked like.


	12. Or Not

12. . . . or Not

Tails leaned closer to the strange blue sphere called a 'dream chip'. The blue light it emitted created strange patterns on the scarred wooden worktop. He tried to ignore the stark, tricolored form of Reala looming on the opposite side of his workbench. The Nightmaren had confirmed the Dreamcaster and the dream chips as being genuine, although his thin lip had curled distastefully at the latter, and he had avoided contact with them. Across the room, Amy was muttering under her breath as she hunted through cabinets for Tails' collection of Chaos drives, and in a corner, Knuckles and Sonic were using the cub's computer to hunt for Chaos Emerald sightings. Reala's steady stare was making the fur on the back of the fox's neck stand up, and he kept trying to rub it back down.

"Can the dream chips hurt you?" he asked suddenly, looking up at the tall Nightmaren.

Reala blinked, startled by the abrupt question. He reached out and picked up the luminescent object, touching it only with his fingertips. "Neither I, nor NiGHTS," he said, looking at the dream chip as if it were a handful of dung. He dropped it back on the bench, and Tails grabbed at it to stop it rolling off. "The third-level Nightmarens can be harmed by them, even rendered immobile; the second-levels are repelled by the things. I merely do not like them, because they are concentrated bits the power which opposes my Master's. We possess more of Master Wizeman's will and less of the substance of Nightmare - or we're supposed to."

Tails considered that with one part of his mind, while most of his attention flicked between the dream chip and the Dreamcaster that lay in the middle of the table. It was cupped in a sort of cradle made from some of the special materials that Emerl had been built with; materials specially designed to convey Chaos energy, with all its unusual properties, the way that copper wire carried electricity. This particular device was one that Tails had thrown together shortly after the last Death Egg affair, with an idea towards charging a Chaos drive from a Chaos Emerald, or vice versa. Not that he'd actually expected to _use_ it; it had been more of a thought experiment. Now he was trying to figure out if he could somehow hook the luminescent dream chip up to it.

He jumped at the sudden clatter of falling metal; Amy had just knocked over the set of hoverboards that had been leaned against the wall. Rouge had showed up shortly after Sonic and Shadow had gone out looking for the Dreamcaster, and prevailed upon the fox cub's better nature to 'spruce up' her hoverboard and the two G.U.N. agents'. While she'd initially leaned hard on what Tails owed her for her help with Emerl, she'd left a trio of boards behind for Tails, Sonic, and Knuckles. Tails had thoughtfully modified those boards as well, suspecting an ulterior motive, either from Rouge or Eggman, since the boards had clearly been made especially for each of them. Shadow's board was also among those Amy was now picking back up, waiting for Tails to get to after dealing with the Dreamcaster.

_Or not, as the case might be. I have no idea how to fix this._ "Shadow?" The dark hedgehog poked his head in from the other room. "Could you, um, see if you can feel any sort of link between these two things? Or maybe transfer a little bit of power from one to the other? For the life of me, I don't see any way to connect this chip to the linking unit."

"Hmm." Shadow stepped into the room and approached the table. "I didn't sense any power at all in the Dreamcaster, before." He held the palm of his left hand over the glowing sphere, half-closing his eyes. After a moment the hand lowered so that it was cupped over the chip, and he picked it up to cup in both hands. Then he opened his eyes and looked at Tails, shaking his head as he put the chip back down. "There's _something _there, but I can't touch it. It's not like Chaos energy at all." He picked the Dreamcaster up and concentrated on it again briefly. Then, staring at the small stone resting on his right palm, he raised his left hand and snapped his fingers. A small bubble of Chaos energy appeared and burst into brief sparkled of light. Sonic and Knuckles looked sharply around from their corner. Shadow moved his hands next to each other and snapped his fingers again. This time the sparkles leaped from the ephemeral Chaos bubble toward the striped stone. Tails blinked. Had a gleam of light just traveled along one of the purple striations? Shadow regarded the stone thoughtfully. "Amy, have you found those Chaos drives yet?" he asked.

Amy hurried forward, holding out several glowing rods, each made of a substance that wasn't glass and capped with the same esoteric metals that the transfer unit was constructed from. Shadow selected a crimson one, wrapping his fingers around the glowing core and closing his other hand around the Dreamcaster. Scarlet light seeped between the fingers of his glove where he gripped the Chaos drive. He closed his eyes fully in concentration, his whole body tensing, and the drive grew brighter - and now light was beginning to ooze like blood between the fingers of his other hand as well. Sonic suddenly folded a hand around Shadow's, blocking the escape of light from the small stone. Tails looked at his friend in surprise, but Sonic seemed nearly as surprised himself; Shadow didn't seem to have noticed. Even Reala, who had been looking utterly bored, was now watching intently. The light from the Chaos drive faded and died; Sonic dropped Shadow's hand as if burned and stepped back. No light seeped from that fist now. Shadow relaxed, and opened his eyes and his hand to look at the stone.

This time Tails was certain that he saw a tiny gleam in several of the stripes that hadn't been there before, but it was like a lit twig at the base of a ten-foot bonfire. "We need a Chaos Emerald," he said.

Shadow nodded. "I can at least tell you that the power _can_ be transferred, but the stone is transforming it, somehow - and wasting a great deal of the energy in the conversion. What is in there now is _not_ Chaos energy. The Chaos Emeralds may be able to assist in that transformation, because they are . . . aware, where Chaos drives are not, but it will certainly take a great deal of energy even then."

"So we need more than one Chaos Emerald?" said Sonic. "Or would the Master–?"

"Nuh-uh!" Knuckles cut him off vehemently. "The Master Emerald's staying right where it is, and I'm not risking it on some weird rock!"

Tails refrained from pointing out that the Master Emerald _itself_ was a weird rock. Shadow also ignored the echidna's outburst, answering Sonic's question. "I don't know that you _need _more than one Chaos Emerald, but it might be faster. Although their power is infinite, the amount that can be channeled at once is not." Tails and Reala nodded, but the others looked confused. Shadow clarified, "It's like having a bucket full of water, and trying to drain all that water through a small hole. The more Emeralds you have, the more 'holes' there are to move energy through; and also the holes get larger when you bring the emeralds together."

"So," said Tails, looking at Sonic and Knuckles, "did you find any signs of Chaos Emeralds?"

"No," said Sonic.

"Yes!" cried Knuckles. Sonic whirled to glare at the echidna, but Knuckles was already bending over the computer again, tapping a spot on the screen with one thumb. "Look, there," he said, "it just now found it."

Tails pushed past Shadow and Reala to look, tapping in a quick command to detail the location of the Emerald. "That's . . . . That's Future City. Hah, home of Robotnik Inc.'s largest factory, and the energy plant that Eggman tried to take over a few months ago." Twin tails curled in satisfaction. They could get there quickly and he was very familiar with the city; it was an excellent source for some of the more esoteric parts and circuits he used.

"I thought that was Metal Sonic, pretending to be Eggman," said Amy.

"Actually, Eggman had started that, and Metal Sonic just sped up the process," said Tails. "I think Eggman was holding it sort of in reserve; he could have taken it over fairly easily anytime he wanted to, he just hadn't wanted to yet."

"Ah, a plotter after Master Wizeman's heart," said Reala. Tails noticed all his friends giving the Nightmaren sidelong glances.

"Um, yeah," he said hurriedly. "Sonic, why don't you and Knuckles go get the car ready. I'm done with your boards, if you want to take them along; I just need to finish Shadow's so he can go catch up with the G.U.N. group."

Sonic glanced uneasily at Reala, then at Tails and Amy. The his gaze flicked to Shadow, and it seemed to Tails that the two hedgehogs exchanged a significant glance. Then the blue dokan shook himself. "Sure, Tails. Amy, could you raid the kitchen for us and see if there's any food we can take along? Come on, Knux."

"That's Knuckles," muttered the echidna, as he followed Sonic out to the garage.

Tails flipped Shadow's hoverboard up onto the table. Like its rider, it was glossy black, with red and white accents. A small silver plate announced that it was made by Robotnik, Inc.

The cub's first order of business was to remove that plate and replace it with an identical one. Shadow cocked his head, but it was Reala who asked, "Why are you doing that?"

"Because I don't trust Eggman." Tails didn't look up; even as he explained his hands were busy opening the compact engine compartment and sorting tools. "Robotnik, Inc. is a legal corporation, founded by his dad, and no one's ever been able to prove anything wrong with any of the robots or equipment made by them, but . . ." He scowled at a stubborn nut but finally worked it loose. "Um, it's just be too easy to put in a homing chip, or a tracer, or a remote control or something, and since this board was clearly designed for Shadow's use, I'm replacing the i.d. plate just in case."

"I meant, why are you replacing it?" clarified the Nightmaren. "Why not just remove it?"

Tails flicked an ear. "That just doesn't seem right. It _is_ one of their copyrighted products and ought to be labeled as such. Even if I am tinkering with it. Besides, if there's actually something fishy about it, someone will probably check to be sure the plate is there. But they may not check too closely, to avoid drawing attention to it." Humming softly to himself he switched two wires to different connections, and wired a small gadget of his own into their original inputs. Then he sealed that cover back in place and removed the access port for the batteries that were supposed to run the boards. "I thought this was interesting," he commented as he pulled out the batteries, then removed the plate at one end of the compartment. Doing so revealed a pair of long thin slots - just the right size and shape for the Chaos drives he was now sliding into place. "Not only is there a space for the drives behind the battery compartment, the docking apparatus for the drives is already in place."

Shadow was now leaning against the table himself, watching with interest. "So it will now run on Chaos energy - instead of air? I believe the ads all talk about how they're air-powered."

Tails grimaced. "They do, but they really mean 'air propelled'. The batteries - and now the Chaos drives - power the pumps that draw the air in and compress it to store, and then release it to give the boards extra speed and maneuverability. The drives do it better, of course." He adjusted a few more things and then closed it back up again. "There. It's not quite the job I did on ours, but it's better than Rouge and the other two agents got. I could do better with more time, but–"

"But we don't have it." Shadow nodded. "Thank you, Tails. You get the Chaos Emerald - I hope Sonic can stay focused for once - and see what you can do about the Dreamcaster. Reports are coming into G.U.N. from all over the country now, and just over the borders, about third-level Nightmaren attacks. Not that anyone knows what they are, of course. Rouge seems to think it wouldn't be a good idea to tell them, yet."

The dark hedgehog darted a glance at Reala, who shrugged. "They aren't listening to me anymore. Master Wizeman might be able to control them - or might _be_ controlling them - but I cannot, now." There was a pause, then to Tails' surprise the Nightmaren added, "Actually I never could. I can direct them to do something and they typically obey, but I can only _stop_ them from doing something by physically restraining them."

Tails regarded the tall figure suspiciously; volunteering that sort of information seemed out of character. Reala returned the look cooly. Shadow was also watching the Nightmaren, and his gaze was nearly as chilly as Reala's. When he spoke, his voice was as cool as his stare. "If the Nightmarens are doing your master's bidding, shouldn't you be with them?"

The blue eyes flicked from Tails to Shadow, then looked away from that crimson gaze.

"That is my business, I believe, and none of yours. Suffice it to say that for the moment it is to my benefit that you succeed in your respective tasks."

"Meaning you want to get back to your world of Nightmare, where you have more power than you have here." Tails wasn't sure if Shadow was guessing or if the striped hedgehog had information that the fox cub didn't, but Reala was unmoved by the challenge.

"As I said, for now, I wish you success." The Nightmaren produced a strange, golden mask, like a bejeweled set of eyeglasses, from his left sleeve and put it on. For an instant he regarded them from behind the visage of a golden bird, then abruptly he _was _a large bird. Black-bodied with white flight feathers, and crimson tail and crest, but his blue eyes still peered through the gilded mask. With a flap of wings longer than Tails was tall, he leapt up and out the window, gliding away in a manner that Tails knew wasn't entirely powered by those wings.

"Here we go– what was that!?" Amy had returned with a backpack of food just in time to catch a glimpse of the red tailfeathers vanishing out the window. She hurried across to look out and up.

"Reala has a few tricks up his sleeves, it seems," noted Shadow dryly. "But, now that he's gone, I'd best be off. Thank you for the modifications, Tails." He nodded his head to the fox as he picked up his hoverboard. "Good luck in getting the Chaos Emerald." He nodded towards Amy, as well, then left the workshop.

The door to the garage opened as the one to the front walk closed. "We're ready, Tails," said Knuckles. "You've got a lot of junk out here, you know."

"It's not junk," protested the cub, taking the pack from the pink hedgehog. He slung one strap over his shoulder and picked up his own hoverboard. "It's spare parts and works in progress. Thanks, Amy. Um, I guess we'll see you later?"

"What?" Amy was confused, then she frowned. "Hey, wait! You're not leaving me here, are you? I can help!"

"I know you can," said Tails hurriedly, "I came to you for help at the beginning, remember? But there's not room for all of us in the car, and you don't have a hoverboard, so we can't say you're entering the race with us–"

"Are we entering the race?" Knuckles cut across Amy's building outrage. "No one tells me anything."

"No, Knuckles. We're not entering the race, we're just using it as a reason to go after the Chaos Emerald. It's the entry fee, remember?" Actually Tails wasn't certain about that part himself, but that was what Sonic had said, wasn't it?

"Hmmph!" snorted Amy. "Well maybe Cream and I will form our own team, and enter the race for real!" She stamped out the front door, slamming it behind her.

Tails and Knuckles looked at each other a moment. The fox cub was willing to bet that Amy could be very good on a hoverboard, and Cream was reasonably athletic for her age, but . . . . Knuckles beat him to it. "Big on a board?" The echidna smirked. "That I have GOT to see."


	13. Entering the Race

13. Entering the Race

Sonic lounged in the front seat, idly watching his friend drive. Tails had finally run out of explanation about the modifications he'd made to the hoverboards and fallen silent. Sonic had pretended interest, but he really didn't care that much. As far as he was concerned, hoverboards were for people who couldn't run; or maybe for technology fans like Shadow. It would have been a lot faster for him to simply _run_ to Future City, but he'd been overruled by Tails and Knuckles, who had feared either a trap or that he might run into more Nightmarens on the way. Which they had, in fact - Sonic had vaulted out of the car twice: once to deal with a collection of what looked like zombie teddy bears that had been attacking a young human couple; and again ten minutes later, to face down (if you could call it that) a strange, midnight green, shadowy something that had neither face nor form. That particular thing had intercepted the car, attacked it, and then pursued them until Sonic got out to confront it. Afterward, he'd noticed Knuckles staring uneasily out the back window, and wondered if there was a connection. The echidna had continued peering around for most of the trip, before finally falling asleep in the back seat, but Sonic had seen nothing else but a gorgeous afternoon. He'd wished mightily to be out running in it. Hadn't he already proved the Nightmarens were no threat to him?

But now the splendid sunset was fading, and they were flitting along the over-ground routes of Future City. Many of the cars here were hover vehicles, so routes were marked at several levels above the ground streets, and many buildings had upper level parking and entrances. While such was not the case in Central City, Tails had long ago ensured that his car had hover capabilities of its own. The cub was piloting the car though early evening traffic while keeping one eye on the portable Chaos energy scanner on the dashboard. Suddenly he swung the car to the right. "Wake up, Knuckles! I think we're here!"

"Huh? I wasn't asleep," protested the echidna, although the massive yawn that followed gave lie to his words. Tails brought the car to a neat landing on a rooftop lot and reached for his scanner.

"That's odd." He tapped the face of it, then pressed a few buttons one-handed while exiting the car. Sonic and Knuckles joined him as he turned slowly in a circle, waving the device.

"What's up, Tails?" asked Sonic. Now that they were here, he wanted to get the Emerald fast and clear out. Eggman had tried to take over the city's energy plant once, and probably still had a base in a nightclub downtown, from which an ambush could easily be sprung. He wondered if Eggman was holding the Emerald for some reason.

"I think the signal's coming from around here," the fox cub said uncertainly. He lowered his scanner and tapped the face again. Then he turned it toward his friends. "Hmm, that's really weird. It looks like something's jamming the radar signal."

Sonic blinked at the scanner, which said clearly that it was registering a 'Jamming Wave', but before he could say anything, something crashed through a window nearby. He spun around to look, spotting the spray of shards from a window several stories above and across the street. Right behind the glass came a trio of figures, moving fast, out into the open air above the street and the over-ground lanes.

"There! What's that?" _Too slow, Knux_, thought Sonic, who was already moving towards the edge of the roof. The blobby, shifting shapes resolved into three humanoid forms, each on a hoverboard, dropping in a quick but controlled fall towards street level._ Probably dokan, by the silhouettes. And is that–? _

His nascent sense of recognition was confirmed by Tails. "Sonic! The Emerald's over there!"

Sonic was already on the move. "All right! _Now _we're talking!" Action was ever preferable to standing around. He vaulted over the low wall guarding the roof edge, curling into a ball and aiming the leap so that he ricocheted between two buildings on the way down. He hit the ground before the strangers got there, and whirled to face them - and the half-dozen police cars roaring up the street. Flinging out a hand, he hollered "Stop!"

In a blur of green the lead boarder dodged around him. "Hey!" Sonic started to turn but then Knuckles slammed down behind him. A single magnificent punch sent one of the other dokan - who looked on a par with Big the Cat, size-wise - flying in a different direction than his board, which tumbled riderless along the street. Before he hit the ground, rider number three maneuvered her board to intercept and catch him, and flew on past Sonic and Knuckles with hardly a glance, diving into a street tunnel with the police in hot pursuit.

"Shoot!" muttered Knuckles. Tails had collected the abandoned hoverboard and was looking it over.

"Sorry, Tails," said Sonic, as he snatched the board away. _If Shadow can ride one of these things, so can I! _He flung the board forward and leaped onto it. Remembering Tails' instructions he kicked the board into motion and raced into the tunnel after the Chaos Emerald, its alleged thieves, and the police cars. Weaving through the traffic proved to be not so different on the board compared to on foot. _Huh, this is easy! Dunno why everyone makes it - oops! - out to be so hard! _Dodging an unexpected car, he managed to increase speed, rocketing past the police and the third rider, whose board seemed to be suffering from carrying double. As he reached the side of the green dokan in front - he had some sort of crest or headdress, but details were difficult to make out in the flashing glare of sodium lamps and headlights - the other swung a pale-gloved fist at him, and missed. The next minute was filled with missed blows on both sides while dodging oncoming vehicles. Finally, Sonic kicked his board forward and sideways, cutting in front of the green rider, and braked sharply.

"Oh, not bad," the stranger's voice sounded impressed as Sonic emerged from the tunnel and turned to face his adversary - who wasn't there.

"What the –?" Sonic looked around, and then up as a shadow fell across him - and was knocked rolling as the green figure drove down from above, hard and fast, somehow blasting a shockwave of air that sent Sonic's purloined board tumbling.

The green figure braked sharply, hovered a second, and Sonic got a brief, good look at it: a green-feathered dokan hawk, probably about his own age. The hawk snorted, "So _you're_ supposed to be the fastest thing alive?" and then he was gone, dashing away as his companions roared out of the tunnel, the large grey bird riding pillion snatching his board up as they raced past it, still trailed by police cars.

Slightly dizzy, Sonic stood up, looking after the trio with a surge of satisfaction.

"Sonic! Are you all right?" Tails and Knuckles ran out of the tunnel to join him.

The blue hedgehog gave himself a shake and grinned. Maybe hoverboards _weren't _just for people who couldn't run. "All right! New competition!" Tails and Knuckles looked at each other and the cub sighed.

Sonic flipped through televison channels at the hotel, while Tails tried to run another trace on the Chaos Emerald, or any Chaos Emerald. His mind still spinning around the mysterious hawk and the hoverboards, he was rather pleased to find a documentary on them - or on the boards, at least. The narrator was describing the history of 'the modern Extreme Gear racing boards', which didn't look all that much different to Sonic from what he had. History was not something he was much interested in, but the boards had been invented by a son of Professor Gerald Robotnik - who Sonic definitely WAS interested in.

"Hey," Knuckles leaned over the back of the couch to look at the picture of Gerald Robotnik on the screen, "isn't that Eggman's grandfather? The guy who made Shadow and tried to smash the ARK into the world?"

"Yep, that's him. And his son invented the hoverboard based on some of old Gerald's work," agreed Sonic, as the picture obligingly changed.

"So does that mean _he's_ Eggman's dad?" Knuckles frowned at the picture that had replaced Gerald's on the TV screen. Unlike Eggman and Gerald, Ivan was not bald; thick blond hair matched his moustache perfectly.

Sonic didn't answer at first, rather shocked by the concept of Eggman having anything so commonplace as a 'dad'. _But that's silly, I know Gerald's his grandfather, so I must have known he had a father too. Everyone does._ He gave himself a shake. "I dunno, Knuckles. He could be what's-her-name - Mary's - dad, I guess."

"Maria," called Tails from the next room.

"What?"

"Doctor Eggman's cousin's name was Maria. Ivan _is_ his dad: Ivan, Ivo. Doctor Ivan Robotnik invented some of the robotics technology that Eggman uses, and also improved on some of Professor Gerald's ideas. Of course, Eggman's made a number of innovations and improvements of his own," explained the fox cub.

"How on earth do you know all that, Tails?" asked the hedgehog.

"I do research," answered Tails loftily. "'Know thy enemy', and all that."

"Good idea," Knuckles nodded in approval.

Sonic snorted. "How much do I need to know other than 'he's causing problems so let's stop him'?

"Oh hey, look." The documentary ended, but apparently it was only a short insert piece in coverage of a local event. "That's why the roads were so crowded earlier, Tails, there's an Airboard Festival going on right here."

The fox cub came out of his room to join them, frowning. Knuckles obligingly slid over so Tails could sit on the couch between them. "Do you suppose those three were here for the festival and decided to do a little stealing along the way? Or did they use the festival as cover to plan and make the theft? There are probably plenty of people walking around with boards; look at all the events."

Sonic was looking; the screen was showing a summary of the day's events, then switched to a list of the next day's. "Trick demonstrations, hoverboard races, hoverboard trick competitions, new gear trials, hover skates - huh, Shadow should be there for that one - air bikes. Wow, there's a lot there. Robotnik Inc. new extreme gear unveiling. Do you suppose old Eggy's here for that? I wouldn't put it past him to crash this party."

Tails gave him an odd look. "He wouldn't have to crash it, Sonic. Doctor Ivo Robotnik _is_ the head of Robotnik Inc. and Future City is practically a company town. Why do you think all these cars fly through the air, and the buildings are so mechanized? Eggman **owns** half the town, and built the rest of it!"

"What? Oh, come on, Tails. If he's such a high mucky-muck around here, why was he trying to take over the power plant a few months ago?"

I'm . . . not sure he was," said the cub slowly. "Hexaco, the energy company, is one of the utilities that Eggman does own under his real name. I think the robots were trying to guard the energy from Metal Sonic, not from us. Eggman might have known that Metal Sonic had learned how to transform, but he wouldn't have necessarily known what Metal would look like - remember, he looked enough like you in that one picture to fool Amy."

Sonic snorted, and Knuckled laughed. "A boulder could look enough like Sonic to fool Amy," said the echidna.

Tails frowned severely, or tried to. It was hard to glare at two people sitting on opposite sides of you. "You keep making fun of her, and she's not that bad," he complained.

Sonic put on his best big-brotherly expression. "She's not _bad_," he said, patting Tails on the shoulder, "but you have to admit she can be a bit of a pest sometimes, always tagging along."

Tails looked even more offended. "_**I **_tag along too, Sonic. Am I a pest?" He jumped up from the couch and stalked back to his room, closing the door sharply behind him, leaving Sonic rather nonplused.

Next morning the three went looking for a spot to eat breakfast. The streets were packed with festival-goers both human and dokan, many with a board under an arm, while policemen and security robos tried to keep people from riding the boards in the streets. To Sonic it looked like a losing battle, but he refrained from joining in to show off his own moves; heroes were supposed to uphold the laws, after all. Above a crowded plaza lined with vendors, a huge video screen was flashing advertisements and festival updates. Sonic gave it a cursory glance and continued looking for a suitable breakfast source. Someone had just walked by with a couple of doughnuts that looked pretty good. A sudden peal of unpleasantly familiar laughter snapped Sonic's attention back to the screen, just in time to see the Airboard Festival logo vanish.

It was replaced by an all too familiar figure. "Eggman!" exclaimed Sonic, in unintended chorus with Knuckles and Tails. He narrowed his eyes and stepped forward, focusing on his long-time opponent's televised visage.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" crowed the Doctor. "Welcome everyone! I hope you're all ready for a show, we've got an exciting event, just for you. Hohohohohoho! Since you all seem so bored, I put together a little something extra to spice things up! I call it the 'EX World Grand Prix'; a tournament to see who's the best with Extreme Gear. Not _just_ a race, but a _special_ race, to see who's the fastest." Sonic snorted. _Isn't that the point of every race, Eggman?_ "And," the human continued, "these races are no-holds-barred! All contestants pay a simple entry fee of one Chaos Emerald, and the winner takes it all! So, let's see who among you dares to meet this challenge!"

The image vanished, replaced by the rather more pleasant sight of a glossy new airboard. Sonic ignored the ad, his mind spinning. "Eggman again! Just what is he up to this time!" He dug in his memory for the schedules he'd seen last night and posted around town_. I think this race was already on the schedule, so why is he hijacking the monitor to proclaim it __**now**__?_ Abruptly, the mad Doctor was back again.

"And there's more!" he continued, as if the broadcast hadn't been interrupted. Sonic wondered if he was aware of the glitch. "Before I forget, I'll present the current contestants. These players, they're **hot**; the best racers I could find!" Sonic heard Knuckles' grunt of recognition as a massive grey bird replaced Eggman's image, a yellow board with lots of numbers and small text around it beside him. That image faded to a violet, female swallow, whose long crest feathers were tied back under a white scarf. Then Sonic gasped himself as she was succeeded by the green hawk. "Hey, that's . . . !" He concluded under his breath,"Jet the Hawk," reading the name on the screen. _I'll be sure to remember that name. _Even the picture exuded a degree overconfidence and cockiness that the hedgehog found personally offensive. "The EX World Grand Prix, huh? Let's do this!"

"What? But Sonic, what about the Nightmarens?" Tails got the question in first, although the echidna's expression suggested he had the same objection.

"Eh, this won't take long. Besides, if Eggman's collecting Emeralds, we'd better find out what's going on. Even if we take one for the Dreamcaster that'll still put him in possession of six, and remember what he did with the Eclipse cannon with fewer than that. What if he's got some new machine to channel all that power? We could get rid of the Nightmarens to find our own nightmare here."

The fox cub frowned, and looked at Knuckles who grimaced. Both knew that Sonic had a point, of course. "So, you'll join me?" he said confidently.

"Of course, Sonic. You might need that board tweaked a bit. But we will get back to the Dreamcaster as soon as we're done with the Grand Prix, won't we?"

"Sure we will." He grinned at the little fox. "We still have to clear all those Nightopians off Angel Island to give Knuckles some peace, don't we?"


	14. The EX World Grand Prix: Preliminaries

14. The EX World Grand Prix: Preliminaries

It was, of course, not quite as simple as Eggman had implied. To enter the Grand Prix 'cold', as it were, the way Sonic and his team planned to do, _did_ in fact require a Chaos Emerald. However, applying such an entrance fee to all competitors would have made for a very small race, since Chaos Emeralds were: a) extremely rare, with only seven known to exist; and b) difficult for the average person to get hold of. Therefore, many entrants were invitees who needed no Emerald to enter; others paid an entry fee for one of the first round races and were invited (or not) to enter the next round. The first round was over and Sonic didn't have an invitation, but the Emeralds were no particular problem for him; with Tails' little detector machine, they were able to locate a second Emerald without too much trouble. Conveniently, it was also in Future City. (Although they theoretically had the entire planet to scatter across, Sonic had noticed long since that when you found one Chaos Emerald, the others were rarely too far away.) Getting _to_ the Emerald was a bit more of a challenge. This particular gem had somehow become lodged in an intricate mosaic band that ran around a skyscraper at about the sixtieth floor, and the building itself had repulsors installed above and below the band that prevented vandals from steering hover cars close enough to damage the artwork. This meant Sonic had to manage a running start with enough of a lead to run right up the face of the building; far from impossible, but even for a heroic, super-speed hedgehog not the simplest feat in the book. Especially considering the crowds thronging the city. Still, by mid-afternoon he was leading his team into the main offices of Robotnik Inc.

"May I help you?" The speaker behind the desk was an elegantly formed, humanoid robot, a far cry from the bulk of Omega or the rotund Egg Pawns. Two of the older E-series Guard Robos stood motionless on either side of an elevator. An assortment of other guard-type robots stood on low pedestals along the right side of the lobby, while the left-hand pedestals displayed the popular household robots. Except for the E-series guards, nothing looked at all like the robots Sonic was used to battling.

"We'd like to enter the World Grand Prix," said Sonic firmly. He plunked the yellow Chaos Emerald down on the desk, but didn't let go of it.

The receptionist was momentarily motionless, then nodded. "Ah, yes. If you would step through that door, please," a polished hand indicated a green door to the left of the elevator, "Dr. Robotnik will get you registered."

"Thanks," replied Sonic, and headed for the indicated door. Knuckles followed, steering the little fox, who was staring around at the displayed robots. "It's not polite to take a screwdriver to the samples, Tails," Sonic said softly over his shoulder.

Tails started, and ducked his head. "Sorry, Sonic. But I'd love to see the insides of some of these!" He skipped forward a step or two, pulling free of the echidna. "I'll be good. I promise," he added with a grin at his friend.

Sonic grinned back, and opened the door - and stopped short, the grin freezing on his face. Tails and Knuckles walked into him, and he stumbled forward, catching himself quickly. "Hello, Eggman, I didn't expect to see you here." The robot _had_ said 'Dr. Robotnik', but he hadn't expected his enemy to be so brash, personally signing people up for the races.

"_Egg_man?" The eyebrows rose high above the man's spectacles. "You must have mistaken me for someone else. My name is Robotnik; Doctor Ivo Robotnik, owner and CEO of Robotnik Inc. I recognize you, of course; I should think everyone on the planet knows Sonic the Hedgehog when they see him. I'm afraid I don't know your friends, though."

Knuckles snorted and folded his arms, which didn't quite hide the fact that he'd clenched his spiked fists. Tails was staring at the large, moustached human curiously. Sonic didn't answer, trying to figure out what game Eggman was playing. After a moment Tails stepped up to the desk and offered his hand to the man behind it. "Hello, sir. My name is Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails. You've got some fascinating robots on display in the lobby."

Eggman solemnly shook the cub's hand. Sonic wasn't certain whether to laugh or scream, but apparently the Doctor was going to play his role to the hilt. "How do you do, Master Prower? Actually, I believe I do recall your name in the news; didn't you save the people of Station Square from a bomb, or rocket of some sort? A most remarkable - not to say brave - feat."

Tails' tails curled with pleasure. "Um, yes, sir. That was me - I mean, I."

Sonic decided he'd played this silly game long enough and cleared his throat pointedly. "Oops," said Tails, catching his stare. "We're a bit short of time, sir, so could we sign up for the Grand Prix, please?"

"Ah, certainly, my boy, certainly!" The man beamed as if Tails' request was a dream come true. "You've missed the first-round qualifying races, but I see your friend there has a Chaos Emerald; that fee will allow you up to a four-person entry in the second round. I assume the three of you will enter as a team? Just sign your names here," he pushed a registration form across the desk, then picked a pen from the cup by the blotter and handed it to Tails.

"And hand over the Emerald?" said Sonic skeptically. Keeping a firm grip on the gem, he raised his hand so the light caught in the pale gold facets, sparking yellow gleams in the human's glasses.

"What? Oh, no no no!" The man chortled like a beardless Santa Claus. (He certainly _sounded _like Eggman!) "You get to hold the Emerald until you lose, or until the Grand Prix itself. The Emeralds will be presented at start of the final race; there are three races in the second round, you see, with only the first- and second-place finalists from each racing in the last race. And that one, as the rules state, is winner-take-all: whoever wins the race takes all seven Chaos Emeralds home! Mind you, this may mean that an invitee from the first round, who didn't enter with an Emerald ends up with the set, but that's the excitement of the race, isn't it? Seeing who can overcome all challenges the fastest?"

"Challenges?" queried Knuckles. He was carefully printing his name on the sheet below Tails' neat signature. Sonic was momentarily thrown by his old enemy's waving away of a treasure they'd battled for so many times. He'd been certain the human would snatch the Emeralds and run. _Maybe it really __**isn't**__ Eggman? Nah, he can't have had a twin all these years and me not know it - he's got some sort of plan._ The hedgehog shook his head sharply, telling himself to pay attention to what the man was saying to the echidna. He reached past Knuckles to scrawl his own name on the form as he listened.

"– and since each area has only a narrow track area, with shortcuts that may be more appealing to certain racers over others, there is also the challenge of staying on the track, you see? And it _is _a no-holds-barred race - the other racers may try to knock you off your board, and you can do the same to them. No life-threatening attacks, mind you, there are going to be children in the audience, but you can certainly try to knock competitors off their boards or off the track. There will be safeguards below, but a fall could well cost you enough ground that you'll lose the race. Here, take this copy of the rules, and we shall see you tomorrow at Red Canyon for the first race. All competitors must be present at 8 a.m. so that your boards must be inspected to be certain there are no lethal modifications. Weapons aside, feel free to alter your boards any way you desire. Good luck!"

The man pulled the form back and swivelled his chair to one side, where he began typing away on his computer as if he'd already forgotten the trio was in the room. Sonic frowned and glanced at Tails and Knuckles. The echidna was also frowning, but jerked his head toward the door. Tails just shrugged and headed back to the lobby. Sonic followed, looking down at the Chaos Emerald as if to make sure it hadn't been somehow switched while he was holding it. It gleamed calmly back, as visible to that strange other sense he shared with Shadow as it was to his eyes. He still couldn't believe that Eggman hadn't tried to grab it. _I wonder what he's after if not the Emeralds?_ He followed Tails and Knuckles back to their hotel, where the fox cub began tinkering with the hoverboards in earnest. A small robot shaped like a black cube arrived on a miniature hoverboard, carrying the details of the races' assigned entrants.

"Looks like we're all in different races," announced Knuckles, after frowning at the papers for a few minutes. "Tails first, then me, then Sonic. Like Dr. Robotnik said, the first race is in Red Canyon, specifically the Splash Canyon complex. We'll have to leave pretty early, if you want to check the course out before the race, Tails."

Tails had emphasized the desirability of doing just that, so he made a hasty last adjustment and slapped the access panel to Knuckles' board closed. He could refine it between races if he needed to. "In that case, let's get to bed. G'night Sonic, Knuckles."

Tails hauled the other two out of bed before dawn, but it was only a short drive to the race location. Red Canyon was a small national park located almost within the bounds of Future City, but the area around it had been carefully developed to minimize distraction from its natural beauty. The 'Splash Canyon' area was named for the number of waterfalls that spilled over its edges, from pencil-thin trickles that disappeared in summer, to a great, crashing beast that never fully froze in the worst winters. Although development was restricted in most of the park, Splash Canyon boasted waterwheels that generated a fair portion of Future City's power needs, as well as having an established race track and scenic walking trails. In the pale dawn light, the waterfalls flashed trails of pearl and silver down the shadowy cliffs, and mists shrouded the lower reaches of the canyon. Tails and Knuckles stared around in awe, and even Sonic, who had seen most of the acclaimed 'natural wonders' of the planet, was impressed. He hopped out of the car and jogged to the high point of a nearby bridge, gazing down at the rushing water.

"Yeah, but what exactly is Eggman really after?" said Knuckles, coming up behind him. Sonic flicked an ear in annoyance; he'd hoped the echidna would be distracted enough by their arrival to forget the conversation they'd been having in the car. Knuckles was convinced that the whole race thing was a distraction of some sort, with Eggman waving the Emeralds as obvious bait while covertly scheming to steal something else, or launch a secret coup, or something along those lines.

"Aw, it can't be too important," Sonic said. He'd decided on the trip that Eggman was either actually after the Chaos Emeralds, but biding his time - perhaps to throw people off the scent - or the Doctor _was _after something else, but it wouldn't be anything very major. Eggman _liked _people to notice his grand schemes. He wouldn't do anything important _sub rosa_, because then people wouldn't know it was HE who had done it. The hedgehog was relieved when Knuckles went off with Tails to walk the course, leaving him to watch the light strengthen and turn gold in peace. Several small, domed buildings appeared as the mist faded, reflecting sunlight from their glass roofs.

"Hey Sonic!" The excited voice was all too familiar. Sonic flinched involuntarily and turned around.

"Amy . . . ?" Apparently she'd won one of the qualifying races and earned an invitation, because he knew she didn't have a Chaos Emerald. Secretly, he was impressed, but he wasn't about to let her know that, especially in front of Tails and Knuckles, who were just returning. "Don't tell me you've signed up too?"

"Of course," she grinned. "It looks really exciting and fun. Why wouldn't I join?" The grin became more mischievous. "Besides, this way I'll be able to keep my eyes on you." She winked and Sonic groaned, hearing smothered laughter from Knuckles. Tails, however was silent, and Sonic turned towards his buddy, grateful for the support. And frowned. The fox cub was staring at Sonic's hoverboard with a faraway look in his eyes.

"Tails?"

The cub shook his head slightly. "That mark . . ." he murmured, still worlds away.

Sonic raised his board and inspected it; had it gotten damaged somehow? But he didn't see anything wrong with it. "Mark?" he asked, raising his voice slightly.

Tails blinked and looked at Sonic properly. "Uh huh," he nodded, "I think it was on the boards of the guys we ran into in Future City. Babylon . . ."

"Babylon?" Sonic heard Amy's and Knuckles' voices echoing his. What did an ancient, near-mythical city have to do with a hoverboard race OR Chaos Emerald-stealing thieves?

"Yes, the mark of the Babylon Rogues." Tails looked around at his friends' puzzled faces and expounded, "A long time ago, there was a floating island known as Babylon Garden. Supposedly, robbers lived there. According to rumors . . . this legendary band, the Babylon Rogues, were great thieves. Legend also says that the Babylon Rogues incurred the wrath of the gods because of their crimes, and that the island was cast into the depths of the Earth. After that, supposedly, the Babylonians were scattered for all time, never to be found. But they say that the Babylon Rogues' treasure still remains on the island, waiting to be discovered. There are also rumors that the Babylon Rogues were Extreme Gear specialists."

Sonic realized Tails was attempting to link the avian thieves to these ancient Babylonians, as if any number of gangs didn't latch on to symbols they found significant or suggestive. Even Knuckles looked skeptical. "So they had all this technology all that many years ago?" he scoffed. Then something flickered in his expression, and Sonic wondered if he'd remembered Emerl, who was probably about as old as the Babylonian legends and certainly high-tech. "Still," he blustered, trying to cover his error, "how can a plank like that just float?"

_Wrong question, Knux_, thought Sonic, as Tails brightened. The cub took Sonic's board started to explain - in great detail - just how it worked. The hedgehog didn't bother to listen, although he caught random words like 'Kutta-Jankowski' and 'kinetics'. He was not at all surprised when the echidna hollered, "STOP! I get it, okay! It just floats and that's good enough for me!"

He was surprised by the outburst of laughter nearby. A violet-feathered dokan in white clothing sashayed up to them. (Sonic was impressed, he'd never seen anyone actually sashay before. He was also clearly aware of Amy bristling beside him and tried not to cringe. _Someone's about to get hurt. I hope it's not me._)

But Amy held her temper - for the moment - and the purple swallow ignored her and the older males, pausing beside Tails. "Sorry, but it's just _too_ funny! –Huh? That Gear's unusual," she said, half to herself.

Tails held Sonic's hoverboard up proudly. "Customized it myself!"

The swallow took the board, turning it in her hands and examining it closely. Sonic wasn't certain if her initial interest was real or as fake as her laughter, but he got the impression that she was impressed in spite of herself, and trying not to show it. Finally she gave a slight shrug and pushed it back at Tails with a snort. "Well! I never imagined anyone would enter the race with such a piece of junk!" The fox cub looked shocked, then insulted, as she laughed. He snatched the board back. "Thanks though, it was good for a laugh. See ya, shorty!" She sashayed away, the her long tailfeathers emphasizing the sway of her hips. If she was trying to distract the hedgehog, it was a wasted effort; Sonic was too outraged on his friend's behalf to notice.

"Oh, that girl!" Amy exploded. She kept her voice down, but her fists were clenched and Sonic expected a PikoPiko hammer to appear any moment. "Who does she think she is?"

"Yeah! How can she just walk in and diss Tails?" Sonic clapped a hand on the cub's shoulder as he spoke, trying to project confidence in his friend's abilities.

Unfortunately Knuckles opened his mouth before Sonic could phrase a suitably confident and reassuring next statement. "I know! And tinkering's all he's really good at, too." Amy's glare switched from the arrogant swallow to Knuckles, who belatedly realized that his phrasing was not exactly tactful. Sonic felt an urge to swat the echidna himself.

They were all interrupted by the tannoy, as the shrill voice of Robotnik Inc's most popular toy robot, Omochao, announced the start of the race. "Please come to the gate, participants!" Forgetting the swallow, Sonic clapped Tails on the shoulder again and started steering him toward the gate, offering encouragement and good wishes for the race. Amy pulled her board out, and Knuckles bulled his way in front, clearing a path through the gathering crowd for the small cub. Leaving Amy and Tails at the gate, the other two hurried to find a good vantage to watch the race.


	15. Splash Canyon

15. Splash Canyon

Tails swallowed nervously as he lined up with the other competitors. There appeared to be about a dozen teams represented, although he wasn't certain if all the teams had a single member in each preliminary or not; hadn't Rouge said her team had four people in it? There were no assigned starting positions, so several people were fussing at either edge of the track over who was going to get the rail position. Normally the outer rail would not be a favored choice, if he remembered correctly, but there was a grinding rail on the outer edge of the track not too far from the start. _Personally, I'd rather be near the inside, since that's where the flight booster rings are, but . . . . _A very large human in a G.U.N. uniform was arguing with the tall, violet swallow and another dokan over the inner position. The latter, a grey-furred flying squirrel, quickly yielded, and Tails took a position near her. _I wish I knew a bit more about racing. Or hoverboarding, for that matter. Sonic is always certain he can do anything he tries, but I'm not sure a few laps around the block equates to race-winning techniques. At least I __**am **__sure the board is up to spec, in spite of what that swallow says. _Wave was her name, according to the roster. His eyes flicked to the left and saw that she had gotten the inside rail position. Glancing to his right, he was pleased to see Amy beside him. Another human tried to get past her, but her glare dissuaded him quickly. She flashed Tails a grin as the man fell back. "Good luck, Tails!"

"You too, Amy," he squeaked. And blushed, clearing his throat. "Good luck," he managed, in a more normal voice.

"And to you, Mr. Fox," said the squirrel on his left, evidently thinking he was talking to her. He bobbed his head politely.

Omochao's voice floated down from above as a hot air balloon shaped like a chao's head drifted across the track. "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the second round of races for the EX Grand Prix! The first- and second-place finishers from each of these three races will move on into the Grad Prix itself! Remember, this is an anything goes race, so expect to see a lot of action on the field!

"Contestants: you have formed your start line. You may back up as far as you wish to get a running start once the line marker starts to move, but anyone who crosses the line in front of that marker will receive a time penalty - AND wish they hadn't! Ready? Begin countdown!"

Tails looked at the starting line painted on the wood ahead of them. _How is it going to move?_ He'd barely finished the thought before a line of light beamed across the track about two feet above the painted mark, answering his unvoiced question. As the numbers appeared on the countdown clock, the light swept back, most of the racers falling back before it as if pushed. Then it began to sweep back forward. Most of the racers leapt after it immediately. Tails hung back a second then started a controlled run towards the line. He didn't hit the starting line right in time with the light beam, but neither did he get there ahead of it - the man on the far side of Amy and someone near the outer edge got visible (and literal) shocks when they arrived too soon. The human was still staggering and shaking his head as Tails leaped onto his board and rocketed across the starting line.

_Three time around the track; don't get too far behind but stay back and watch what everyone else does on the first lap_, he reminded himself. Amy had gotten a better start and was already approaching the grind rail - with two people on the outside of her getting zapped and three doing more shoving than racing she was actually able to drift neatly across the track and leap onto it first, skidding the board crosswise along the rail while maintaining perfect balance. _She's really good! I wonder how long she's been doing this?_ Tails pulled his mind back to what he was doing as the G.U.N. soldier suddenly tumbled across his path. The flying squirrel veered away with a squeal of dismay as she lost control of her board, but the fox cub shifted weight and jumped over the human. Ahead of him, Wave pocketed a wrench nearly as large as Amy's Pikopiko hammer. "Note to me: don't get too close to her," he muttered. He kept as close to her track as he could though, as she took the jump-off at the end of the bridge to the boost rings, passing skillfully through them and landing on a higher walkway. Tails caught the first ring, but hadn't realized that they moved –he was out of position to pass through the second and had to swerve sharply to avoid hitting the ring itself. Denied the boost from the ring, his hover board couldn't maintain itself at that height and dropped under the walkway to skim along about twelve inches above the water below it. At the edge of the small pond was a ramp, and Tails attempted to jump from it to another elevated walkway, but missed, rattling along the lower path with about half the field. The end of this path dumped them onto a white water area, requiring careful balancing as the hover boards bucked above the churning surface. Since the boards maintained a height of twelve inches (give or take a few) above whatever surface they were passing over, the effect was that of driving a car very fast over a road that was half rocks and half potholes. At the end a waterspout - surely artificial! - flung the boards and their riders high into the air_. Good thing Sonic didn't get this course, with all the water hazards. But __**I'd **__rather have this than one like his with so many drop-offs!_

Another pond waited below, with a fallen waterwheel rising half out of it like a sand bar. Tails spotted the violet swallow riding up a ramp on the far side of the pond and entering another chain of boosters. A grind rail hung enticingly above the high end of the waterwheel, but his board wasn't modified to ride them. A tunnel he had noted on the walkthrough, that appeared to be a shortcut, was now blockaded by massive barrels. Tails noted two of the larger racers heading towards the blocked tunnel, but pointed his own board toward the takeoff ramp. This time, aware that the boost rings drifted a bit, he managed to thread his way through the entire chain, and landed even with Amy, a human, and a bulldog just in front of the U-turn bridge that normally lead to a scenic overlook. Wave was still in the lead, disappearing into a cave in the cliff face. Tails lost ground as he hit the turbulence generated by the boards Amy and the human were riding; the bulldog had missed the hairpin turn and crashed into the fence. Regaining control, the fox cub flashed past an emergency recharge station and plunged into the darkness of the cave. He had a vague impression of a dim glow in the blackness before he collided hard with something solid, and tumbled off his board into something wet. Floundering in the water and trying to get his bearings, he ducked as he heard another racer jet into the cavern and winced at the subsequent crash and splash. His eyes adjusted to the dim light and he spotted his board floating at the base of the faintly glowing crystal outcrop he'd crashed into. _Funny_, he thought as he heaved himself back onto his board, _during the walkthrough it didn't look like these things would be in the way._ He scooted out of the way of the next pair of incoming racers, one of whom hit the same outcrop he had. The other managed to avoid that obstacle, but hit another clump of blue-glowing crystals further into the cave. Tails paused on the narrow path by the cave wall to orient himself, then kicked off down the length of the cave. He managed a moderate jump off the short ramp leading out through a waterfall, and emerged within sight of the starting bridge. He caught a glimpse of the scoreboard as he flashed across the line ending the first lap, with his name in fifth place. Wave was on top.

_No surprise there. Didn't see where Amy is, but I'm pretty sure she's in front of me._ Now that he had the basic layout in his mind, the cub increased his speed. The third and fourth place racers weren't all that far ahead of him, and soon he started to feel the jolting of their displaced air. _Okay, let's do this! _He'd studied the techniques involved in hoverboard racing, in order to maximize the boards' performance, but he hadn't had much chance to put theory to the test. One of the best ways to increase speed was supposedly to ride turbulence left by the passage of another board. He sped up a bit more, dropping into the trough where the racers' respective wakes merged, then steered sideways. His first attempt was too sharp a turn and he nearly fell off, but on the second try he managed to leap off the top of the other riders' turbulence like a dolphin, spinning a neat circle and gliding back down into the trough and up the other side. Weaving back and forth he gained on the other racers, bouncing at last clear over number four, who turned out to be the G.U.N. soldier. The bulldog in third glanced back, saw him coming, and veered for the grind rail. He missed, but Tails had already broken off to shoot for the boost rings, which this time lifted him neatly on to the high road that Wave had taken the first time around. The end of that path dropped him onto the rapids higher upstream than the lower path did, and Tails flashed past the bulldog to join Amy and Wave as the waterspout vented upward.

"Go, Tails!" called Amy, as they glided down to the wheel pond. She headed for the grind rail; Tails followed Wave to the boost ramp. Suddenly, the swallow dropped speed. Wondering if something was wrong with her board, the cub overtook her. With a yelp he jerked aside, nearly losing his hoverboard, as the swallow swung that massive wrench towards him. He heard her laugh scornfully as she cruised up the ramp, while he skimmed past it, trying to regain control and balance. _Stupid! Stupid! You saw her do that before! _Growling to himself, he registered that the barrels that had blocked the short tunnel had been knocked askew, so instead of turning to retry the ramp, he ducked into the tunnel. It took some weaving to avoid a few barrels that hadn't been knocked over, but he emerged from the other end not too far behind Amy. Unfortunately, the bulldog had caught up with him in the meantime and rocketed past both the fox cub and the hedgehog. Amy matter-of-factly pulled out her PikoPiko hammer and swatted the tail of his board sideways, sending him into a spin that vaulted him over the bridge railing. A robot rose from below, holding the hoverboard and its disoriented rider in a suspension field, while the commentator's balloon circled overhead.

Tails gulped and followed Amy rather gingerly as she vanished into the blackness of the cave again. This time he remembered where the crystal formations were and avoided them, but missed his angle on the exit ramp and flubbed the jump badly. Four racers sped past him before he caught his board and got back onto it._ It's a __**really**__ good thing Sonic didn't get this race. I don't think I can get any wetter. _He didn't bother to glance at the scoreboard as he passed the starting line this time. "One more lap. I can do this!" Flicking his tails in determination, he barreled up the track after the leaders.

He caught up enough to ride the turbulence of the closest one, the G.U.N soldier. Now that he had the trick of it, it was quite easy, cutting back and forth and doing jumps at the peak of the air flow, then vaulting over his opponent's head to land in the trail that _he_ was riding, which also interrupted the air flow for the soldier. The cub slewed his own board with a vengeance, taking care not to leave a trail that anyone could ride to leapfrog him. The next rider tried to cut off the flying squirrel, who twisted and flared her 'wings' at him. Tails only caught a glimpse, but apparently she'd painted them with something that startled her opponent enough to cause him to weave. Tails had to flip out of his slipstream fast before the churned air slowed him down. The squirrel dropped off to the water, while the cub took the boost rings again. He passed the squirrel and someone else while riding the rapids, and shot into the air to see three figures crossing the wheel pond: Amy, Wave, and a human he didn't know.

Tails raced across the pond on a tangent, shot up the ramp and threaded the boost rings. This dropped him off only a few lengths behind Wave and actually ahead of Amy. The human burst out of the short-cut tunnel and did an incredible slingshot boost on the hairpin turn. Tails was peripherally aware of that as he pushed on after Wave. CRASH! Something slammed full force into the cub as he tried to enter the cave; he didn't come off his board but the track looked very peculiar suddenly, with the clumps of crystals pulling away from him. Amy had somehow passed him and was whacking the human with her hammer, looking absolutely furious. Tails' board spun around as something hit it from behind, and he realized he'd been going backwards. _Oh, I guess __**he**__ must have hit me. _ Dizzily he shook his head, and realized the jump ramp out was right in front of him. Leaning back, he lost his balance and stomped on the tail of his board harder than he meant to, sending it rocketing high off the ramp edge, through the obscuring waterfall. Half-blinded by a faceful of water, he could have sworn he saw the rainbow unfurl itself to meet him, his board skimming along the multihued span like a swallow. Somewhere far away, it seemed, he heard Amy holler "Go, Tails!"

He got his vision cleared just in time to touch down above the lake, with only Wave in front of him. Revving his board, he chased her across the finish line to score second place. Amy rode in behind him for third.

"Good job, Tails!" she called over the noise of the crowd and announcer.

The cub cocked his head at her. "Uh, thanks, but why were you helping me? Weren't you trying to win?"

"Nah, I've got better things to do than chase around a race course, and Sonic'll need your help. He won't_ admit_ it, but he'll be expecting you to be there."

Tails felt obscurely disappointed. "So you were only helping me to help Sonic?" he asked, ears drooping slightly.

The pink hedgehog looked at him in surprise. "Well, we're all on the same team, really. It's just you and Sonic and Knuckles have more practice at this sort of thing than Cream or I do." She glanced over his head, then caught him by the shoulder and turned him around. "Look, Eggman's waiting for you up on the platform. Go on up and get cheered; you earned it."

She gave him a shove and he went. He almost corrected her about Eggman's name, but really, he didn't trust the Doctor either, whether he was going by his real name or his _nom de guerre_. _Well, I'm still in the running for the Grand Prix_, he realized suddenly._ So I'll have a chance to try to work it out, even if Knuckles and Sonic don't make it._ That was a rather scary thought, so he shoved it to the back of his mind, along with his odd reaction to Amy's words. Feeling suddenly proud of his finish, even if he did have help, he tucked his hoverboard firmly under one arm and twirled his tails, flying up onto the platform with Dr. Robotnik and Wave.


	16. Ominous Rumbles

16. Ominous Rumbles

NiGHTS was bored. This was not a good thing, either in NiGHTS' own view or in that of anyone familiar with the first-level Nightmaren, because it tended to lead to trouble. In Reala's opinion there had been more than enough of that already. The red-and-black Nightmaren was glaring into one of his own secrets, something his 'dear' sibling would never believe that he had - a pale red 'crystal' ball that Wizeman had no knowledge of. Made of an equivalent substance to the dream chips, only from Nightmare rather than Nightopia, it was Reala's window into both the real world and the dream worlds and essential to his true tasks, since it showed him the whole truth instead of the slanted version depicted in the sphere officially assigned by his master. _Little does NiGHTS know that I'm not __**quite**__ so loyal to Master Wizeman as our master believes. I'm true to our purpose, in spite of our master's wanting to bend that purpose to suit his own goals. _It was a dangerous game Reala played, skating along a knife edge between obedience and disobedience, with the ever-present risk of discovery and dissolution. What Wizeman had created, Wizeman could also destroy, and there were worse things even than Cerberus in the dungeons of Nightmare. With a sigh, Reala continued to watch NiGHTS' slightly red-tinted form in the dream globe, hoping he wouldn't have to intervene again.

NiGHTS had, when first located, been playing that obnoxious non-flute again, perched as usual on a stump surrounded by Nightopians. This time, another group of blobby little beasts was mixed in, mostly a blue color. Reala had been faintly amused to see that they did not all play well with others; several were shoving 'Pians around and being shoved back. Either the squabbling had annoyed NiGHTS, or the NiGHTS had gotten tired of playing music, because the Nightmaren had abruptly leapt off the stump and taken to the air. It was then that Reala had gotten his first real surprise in this world, because NiGHTS now left an island that was not surrounded by water but floating in midair. Reala had had to scramble a bit to verify that; his understanding had been that islands in the real world did not fly, despite such things being commonplace in dreams. Relocating NiGHTS, he discovered the fool had flown straight into trouble, as a Seeing Hand swept along the coast by a large city. NiGHTS, perched on the peak of a tall building, seemed to be trying to push through the wall rather than moving behind the tower out of sight. _The fool has forgotten that we're in the real world_, Reala thought irritably. Grimacing, he sent a very cautious tendril of power through the globe, forming it into a roughly NiGHTS-shaped imp, then ordered it to dash away on a tangent. The Seeing Hand spotted the motion and struck hard at the fleeing shape. Reala barely managed to sever the link before the imp was crushed against a wall. Fortunately the force of the blow was such that Wizeman's own power signature would cover Reala's completely. _I hope. If Wizeman ever finds out I assisted NiGHTS in evading him . . . . _Reala knew what would happen very well. There had originally been more than two first-level Nightmarens, and the termination of those who had been less clever at escaping than NiGHTS or less cunning at deception than Reala – well, even Nightmares could have nightmares. And just in case Wizeman found his own imagination lacking, he had the whole realm of human (and dokan) nightmares to inspire him. Reala called himself sharply to attention and switched from his own globe to his official one. Such intervention would never be missed in this dream globe, linked as it was to Wizeman's own powers, but not using it for too long would draw attention and unwanted questions.

NiGHTS had been much relieved to see the Seeing Hand sweep suddenly away, and returned to idly looping around the city. Somewhere among the centuries of dreams and dreamers, NiGHTS had heard that people never look up (or rarely, at least) and it appeared to be true. As long as the jester's shadow didn't cross directly overhead, no one looked up to see the brightly colored shape flying above them. Even if it did, most adults continued briskly and boringly along their way. Children often did look up, but frequently were dragged on by the adults they were with if they tried to point NiGHTS out. "That's why I never bother with grownups," muttered NiGHTS. "They're so mind-numbingly focused. Huh. Reala's pretty focused too, either doing what 'Master' says or else trying to stop me having fun." Even in the real world, NiGHTS wasn't going to risk speaking Wizeman's name, especially with the Seeing Hands scouring the countryside. Cityside. Whatever-side. Not that NiGHTS was afraid, but speaking the name could draw Wizeman's attention, and NiGHTS didn't feel like having a showdown at the moment. "I'm supposed to have the showdown with my dreamer close at hand, so he can come to my assistance. Or think he is. I wonder where that Tails has gotten to?"

Locating a dreamer was simple, although getting to the dreamer now involved actual travel rather than merely deciding to be there. NiGHTS considered sulking about the distance, but since there was no one to inflict the sulk on, opted to consider it an adventure instead, and darted off. Along the way, the Nightmaren noticed the random chains of golden rings that scattered around the landscape, and found it moderately amusing to scoop up as many as possible in a row. Soon he jester's outfit was accessorized by two armsful of golden rings worn like bracelets. The energy they contained was similar to that of the dream chips, but rather more pleasant. As Reala had told Tails, dream chips couldn't _harm_ first-level Nightmarens, but all Nightmares creatures found them disgusting. Only NiGHTS refusal to do anything in common with Reala prevented the purple jester from avoiding them completely. Still, NiGHTS tried to minimize contact unless merged with a dreamer. Most Nightmarens 'fed' on the red dream chips of Nightmare, but unfortunately those were nearly all under Wizeman's control. The only other source of usable energy NiGHTS had located was the Ideya of the dreamers, which was one reason the Nightmaren bothered with them. If Reala got the Ideya, than NiGHTS would have no choice but to try to steal Nightmaren chips. Far simpler, and safer, to face down the low level Nighmarens than their master, and to drink of the energy that overflowed from the Ideya. The dreamers themselves couldn't use it, at least in Nightopia, so why shouldn't NiGHTS?

NiGHTS's current dreamer was going in circles in a maze of canyons bedecked with water wheels, near a large and elegant city. The flying cars cruising through the city were a bit of a shock, and one nearly collided with the Nightmaren, who wasn't used to having to look out for such things. NiGHTS reached the Splash Canyon in time to see Tails come shooting out of a cave behind a waterfall in a high arc, and looked on with interest as a rainbow colored forcefield beamed out from behind the waterfall giving the cub a safe and fast path down to the ground ahead of the people who emerged from the cave on a lower arc. Every one of them was standing on a small, brightly colored board-like object, and apparently steering it by shifting their weight. Immediately NiGHTS decided to try it; it looked like fun. The fox cub was climbing onto a platform with the winner of the race and a very large human. Clearly he wouldn't be going anywhere for a while. So, NiGHTS focused and reached for power to shape the idea of a board into being, and the gold rings responded at once, melting and pooling into the desired object. The Nightmaren turned the sleek, shiny board over and over, admiring its graceful shape and bright pink and purple trimmed edges. Dropping it lightly in midair (NiGHTS saw no reason why this board shouldn't float thirty feet above the ground, so it did), the Nightmaren stepped up.

Reala snorted and sat back from his globe. _Typical NiGHTS, off playing around. Still, I suppose that's preferable to my __**dear **__sibling competing for my position. Not to mention that it draws Wizeman's attention away from me, leaving me better able to do what I need to. But what do I do now?_

_Goal number one: get us all returned to Nightopia and Nightmare. At the moment, I see no way to do this without the Dreamcaster being recharged, which means we will need these 'Chaos Emeralds' the dokan spoke of. So, subset of Goal One, monitor this Sonic the Hedgehog and prepare to retrieve the Emeralds myself if need be. Subset number two, keep track of NiGHTS, to be returned to Nightopia by force if necessary_. Reala wasn't at all adverse to the thought of forcibly dragging NiGHTS back into the dream realm. In fact, he considered the possibility with a decided surge of pleasure. _The third level Nightmarens will be recalled by the Dreamcaster; its power is beyond their ability to resist. The second-levels . . . I believe they will also be recalled. I must remember to check if any have actually come through. Which leaves subset number three: getting Master Wizeman back across the border. _That task promised to be difficult at best, and possibly deadly. Reala was fairly certain that the draining of the Dreamcaster had been done by Wizeman, though he didn't know how. He only hoped that his master had been secretive out of caution rather than out of suspicion.

_Which brings us to Goal Two: DO NOT LET MASTER WIZEMAN LEARN THAT I WAS WORKING AGAINST HIM IN THIS. He will, I think, be inclined to blame NiGHTS and the dreamer; I must do what I can to bolster that belief. _Reala flinched as the gold mask he wore began to heat against his skin, and cleared his mind instantly.

"Yes, Master Wizeman?" he said. "Your servant receives your summons."

**Reala, why have you not caught NiGHTS yet? That rebellious pest is trying to undo my plans before they are completed. They cannot be stopped, but it is an annoyance I do not need.** Wizeman's voice may have been conveyed by the mask, but the words seemed to vibrate their way out of the walls and furniture like an earthquake shakes the ground. **See to it that NiGHTS is contained, and **_**this**_** time, I do not want to hear that you have failed me. AGAIN.**

Reala's skin couldn't pale, since it was dead white to begin with, but the memory of the punishment for his last failure made it try. Just in case his minion had forgotten the price of failing, Wizeman had sent the full memory along with his words. However, the fact that Wizeman believed NiGHTS to be working against him was good; with an enemy in his sights, he would be less likely to look around him. "As you order, Master. I have seen NiGHTS flying around the area where his dreamer is, but he is distracted as well by this new world. Perhaps – I mean, I can trap him this time without his dreamer nearby for him to Dualize with, or if necessary I can trap the dreamer as well with materials from his own world. United, they can escape snares of either material because they are both, but separately they should be held by the stuff of their own worlds." Reala's fingertips fidgeted on the gold frame of the mask as he babbled on. Wizeman shouldn't be able to read his thoughts through it, but relying on that fact was a potential mistake the Nightmaren did _not_ intend to make. So, words; intricate, polysyllabic, grandiloquent if necessary, sounding as if they were in full accord and agreement while obscuring thoughts that might run counter to statements.

**See that you do it CORRECTLY this time. Or you WILL regret it, and I will have to waste energy generating a new assistant.** Wizeman's attention swung away.

It was not the first time that Reala had heard that particular threat, but it was no less worrying for that. Wizeman had thus far decided the effort in 'properly' punishing his minion was less than that involved in creating and training a new one, but there was always the chance that he might decide that THIS time he'd be better off disposing of Reala completely. And that could not be allowed to happen.


	17. Fire and Ice

17. Fire and Ice

The second race for the EX World Grand Prix was held in a Robotnik robot factory. Having followed signs saying 'Contestants only', Sonic paused in front of a raised cargo door and stared up at the huge, moustached Eggman logo emblazoned above. "How does he get away with it?" he asked out loud. "How can he make all those robots and plaster his face all over everything and expect people not to know that he's really Dr. Eggman?"

"Of course he expects people to know; he wants _everyone_ to know," said a calm voice behind him, "although properly he wants them to know that Dr. Eggman is really Dr. Robotnik. That_ is_ his real name, you know."

"Shadow! Don't sneak up on me like that!" Sonic scowled briefly at the darker hedgehog, then dropped his grievance in hope of some answers. "So if they _know_, why doesn't anyone _do_ anything?"

Shadow looked at Sonic, then raised his gaze to the yellow Eggman logo above them. "This is an automated factory," he pointed out, "and the few human supervisors who come here mostly come in through the personnel door - which is where the spectators are directed today. So there aren't really that many people who see this, and not everyone would immediately recognize it as Eggman's mark." He looked back at Sonic, with a perplexed expression. "For the rest, I am still not sure I understand it myself. According to Rouge, it is well known that Dr. Eggman is an alias of Dr. Ivo Robotnik, but there is no proof that will stand in court of law. Dr. _Robotnik_ merely claims that the villainous 'Eggman' vandalizes his buildings and steals his robots. There is generally proof of said break-ins, and people have been arrested who avow that they were hired by Eggman to paint his symbols on Robotnik buildings and offices. This means that neither G.U.N. nor the police can arrest Dr. Robotnik." Shadow shook his head. "You'd do better to ask Rouge yourself; she can probably explain it better. But there are apparently reasons that make good sense to those with the power to make the arrest, that they do not. Perhaps you should attempt to catch Eggman mid-rampage one of these days, instead of merely chasing him away. Then you could serve as witness in a trial that goes on for ten years."

Sonic blinked, then caught the faint quirk at the corner of the other's mouth and realized that Shadow - Shadow! - was making a joke. The blue hedgehog flashed his own grin, then pursed his lips, pretending to consider the suggestion seriously. "Nah," he said, with a decisive shake of his quills, "I think my way's a lot more fun."

He shoved the door open, "After you." Sonic fell into step beside the other hedgehog as they proceeded down the hall. "Are you in this race, then?" The contestants had special seating away from the general public to cheer on their team members, which was where Sonic was headed. He knew a G.U.N. soldier had been racing Tails from Shadow's team, but not who was in the other races.

The black hedgehog raised a crimson eyebrow. "You haven't looked at the roster? I'm in the third race, with you and the alleged leader of the Babylon Rogues. Rouge is in this one, and that gray albatross."

Sonic stopped short. "Not you too, Shadow!" Shadow paused and looked back questioningly. "Tails was babbling on about some old legend about the Babylon Rogues and how they're supposed to have been the ultimate thieves on a flying island or something. Just because these guys stole a Chaos Emerald on these silly hoverboards, that's hardly a good reason to start grabbing at fairy tales!"

"Perhaps you're right," answered Shadow. He turned to continue up the hall, declining to argue. Perversely, that irritated Sonic more. The blue hedgehog scowled, and darted ahead, just by a few steps. He wasn't going to let Shadow lead him anywhere!

Deeper in the factory, Knuckles was pacing the track with his board and plotting his course. Several of the other racers were concerned by the molten ore that seethed below several areas of the designated path. Knuckles was accustomed to patrolling lava-filled areas of Angel Island along crumbling ledges, so secure floors over mere smelt didn't faze him any; besides, his nose told him that the stuff bubbling below the track was some sort of colored mud, not genuine 'molten' anything. Typical Eggman showoff stuff. But unless someone asked him, he didn't plan to broadcast the knowledge. _All the better for me if the others are nervous in these surroundings. Wait - what's HE doing here?_ Holding his board tightly under one arm, Knuckles charged down the hall. He'd just seen a glimmer of pink and violet vanish around the corner, he was certain. _That'd be all we need now; to have those Nightmare things popping up all over the racetrack! Huh? _The corridor was empty except for several lines of golden rings and a scattered population of deactivated robots, some of the obstacles for this course. The echidna sniffed the air suspiciously. _Where'd he go?_ Oil, metal, the sullenly glowing mud - but then, what did a dream smell like? The Guardian of the Master Emerald tried a different technique. Closing his eyes, he expanded his sense of touch away from his body (or at least, that's how he always pictured it) feeling for anything unusual. The walls and the robots he dismissed, the minor blips of energy that _looked_ like golden rings, the stronger energy weaves that were the human and dokan participants - there was one slightly brighter, with a brush of Chaos energy, odd - and there! Beyond that one was another swirl of energy, not Chaos energy but similar to those blue spheres, only with a darker edge. _Hah! Gotcha!_ Knuckles charged in that direction, opening his eyes just in time to dodge a robot in the middle of the corridor - and slam into someone tall.

He and the other person were knocked back off their feet. He blinked at the massive shape, his first thought being, _That didn't feel like a human_, then yelped "It's you!" as he leapt to his feet.

The grey albatross that he'd knocked off his board in Future City rumbled as he rose to his own feet. _That explains the Chaos touch; he helped steal that Emerald, and he's clearly been handling it since. _Dokan were denser than humans, and differently structured, and most were comparatively short. This feathered creature was a good twelve inches taller than Knuckles, but still had the solid feel of a dokan when collided with. "I'll make sure to pay you back for this!" The huge, yellow-gloved hands curled into fists.

"Hah! I let you get away last time, but definitely NOT today!" declared the echidna. It would be a pleasure to beat this guy in the race, especially if he could manage to tip him into the mud somewhere along the route. He started to move around the bird, still wanting to find NiGHTS before the race started.

The albatross had other ideas, though. "Why wait 'til later, you little punk?" He sidestepped to cut Knuckles off. "I'll pay you back tenfold, NOW!"

Not what Knuckles had planned, but he had no objections to a fight. Drawing his arm back, he cracked his elbow hard against something metal. Trying to keep an eye on his opponent while looking over his shoulder, he saw a 'live' robot crashing over backwards. "Eh, sorry," he muttered in embarrassment. Knocking over what might be a course judge wasn't going to look good. He skipped back from his foe to stand his accidental victim back on its feet, while the albatross roared with laughter. "What're you doin', you clumsy fool? Was that supposed to be some kind of punch?" He drew back his own fist dramatically and punched at Knuckles, hard.

"Nice try, buddy," sneered the echidna. The overly-telegraphed move gave him plenty of time to evade - but the unfortunate robot didn't dodge, and went crashing to the ground again. Stammering an apology, the huge grey bird grabbed the robot's arm and tried to heave it back up in turn, only to stagger backwards as the arm came off. Before either dokan could do more than blink, the abused mechanical shorted out in a dazzling display of sparks. Storm cleared his throat and glanced sidelong at the echidna, clearly wanting to stroll casually away and pretend that nothing had happened. Knuckles didn't want to back down, but the incipient fight had become a farce, and he hated being the butt of any sort of humor. Nor did he want to have to pay for the broken machine.

Then the loudspeakers crackled to life. "The race is about to start! All participants, please get to your positions now!"

_Saved by the bell_, thought Knuckles with relief. "The track then! We'll settle this there!"

Storm was clearly thinking the same thing. "Looking forward to it!" They grabbed their boards and hustled for the starting line.

Sure enough, the multicolored form of NiGHTS was there at the line. So was Rouge, who was eyeing the jester skeptically. Knuckles slid into the empty space beside the bat, since the alternative was to take the outside spot next to Storm. "Good luck, Rouge," he mumbled, not sure if he wanted her to hear or not.

The bat's sharp ears did hear, even over the noise of the loudspeaker and the crowd. She flashed him a surprisingly normal smile, without a hint of flirtatiousness. "Good luck to you, too, Knuckles." She glanced back at the Nightmaren. "Who _is_ that girl?"

Knuckles frowned at NiGHTS, trying to reshape the jester into a female. He couldn't see it, but apparently Rouge and Amy did. Not that it mattered, he supposed. "That's NiGHTS. A friend of Tails', sort of," he added, trying to avoid using a pronoun.

"Oh? Doesn't look like his type," said the bat, but he could tell she wasn't really paying attention to the conversation. There was a chime overhead, and the beam of light started sweeping back from the starting line. Knuckles remembered what had happened to the early starters in the first race, and several competitors were clearly holding back, but he timed the motion in his head and charged when his mental countdown hit zero. Rouge was half a step behind him, and he wondered briefly if she had done her own count or was following him, and then he was leaping onto his board and hitting the start line and the light beam at the same instant. Nothing zapped him, but he felt the board kick forward even more powerfully than Tails' last upgrade could manage. Rouge yodeled behind him, apparently getting the same boost.

The track dropped steeply down to the first ramp, where a bridge across the fiery pit had been either retracted or removed. He stamped back on the board, kicking the nose high as he left the tip of the ramp, and twisted to spin the board as he flipped. He landed neatly and whipped his board around a curve, then into a U-turn as the track doubled back on itself. Unlike Sonic, Knuckles had been practicing a lot since they'd entered the race. He might not be as quick to pick up new things as the hedgehog, but his sense of balance and muscles were in excellent shape, and both were needed for this sport. And in truth, balancing on the swaying board was not too different from some of the rope and vine bridges on Angel Island. Besides, he'd already gotten Tails to confirm that the board could be made to travel much higher than the paltry twelve inches the racers were coasting at - after the Grand Prix the cub had promised to make it possible for him to ride his board up to Angel Island and back, a feat possible due to the Chaos Drive modification the fox had made. Something popped up in his peripheral vision, and he looked up sharply. He recognized one of Rouge's bat bombs just before it went off, blinding him.

He heard the bat's laugh as he veered wildly across the track. "Don't lose your focus, Knuckles!" A few other people yelled as he apparently cut them off, but all he could see were blue and purple spots. One waving fist made contact with another racer, but he had no idea who he'd hit. And then his board hit a wall and he barely got an arm up in time to keep his face from doing the same.

Blinking furiously, he located the trailing racers and set off in pursuit. Several with flight-adapted boards cut to one side and sped through a series of large floating rings - well, two sped and one somehow collided with the loop. A line of the (much smaller) golden rings materialized ahead of Knuckles and he tacked towards them, scooping several with one hand while his board's Chaos drive absorbed the rest. The energy boost from the rings also cleared his vision the rest of the way.

He almost wished it hadn't, because he was heading straight for a curtain of the faux molten metal. It might not be real, but it was hot, and it had that same eerie glow; it (probably) wouldn't vaporize him, but it could still scald. Fortunately there was a gap appearing at the other side of the course. Even more fortunately, as soon as he ducked through the break in the ore-fall he spotted a group of deactivated robots in front of a tunnel. He knocked them easily out of the way and raced down the shortcut, popping out onto the main track just in front of the next two trailing racers. He caught a bar on some sort of machine that swung a line of such bars across the glowing pool to almost the finish line, and saw that he wasn't as badly behind as he thought. He caught up with the next competitor as they crossed the line to start lap two, and swung a spiked fist sharply at the leopard dokan's face. He wasn't trying to actually make contact, but the other flinched enough to send his board careering off the track. Knuckles took the jump again by himself. Now he began looking more closely for potential shortcuts, and trying to pass through along the ring-chains to boost his board's power. Several of the people ahead were clearly riding each other's turbulence, but he hadn't been able to practice that by himself, and he didn't want to try something new if he didn't have to. Instead he tossed a couple of inactive robots out of the way and cut off an entire loop of the track. Now he could see four people ahead: a very reckless, teenaged human; Rouge; that albatross; and NiGHTS. Storm tried to swat Rouge but she dodged him, blowing a kiss that appeared to strike him like a physical blow, spinning his board off course. She tried to unleash a bat bomb on NiGHTS, as she had on Knuckles, but the jester suddenly dove off his board and flew rapidly ahead on his own power, surging past her and the human while towing his board under one arm. This startled the teenager enough that he missed a jump and fell below the track, but Rouge merely laughed and increased her speed. Knuckles had nearly caught up with Storm at this point, and the albatross was gaining ground on the two in front, when he suddenly pulled something from his feathers, then doubled over and slapped both hands against the ground. Knuckles saw the resulting shock wave and leaped his board over it, but both Rouge and NiGHTS were knocked off their boards and the track. The echidna swerved close enough to the edge to check on them, and gaped - not at Rouge, who had spread her own wings to catch herself, but at NiGHTS, who had suddenly frozen all the 'ore' solid. Having done so, the jester set out across the ice to the next section of track. Knuckles briefly debated, and decided the size of the shortcut was worth the risk of the ice thawing, and sent his own board after the Nightmaren. Rouge had reached the same conclusion, and he took care to stay away from her. The three regained the track just ahead of the machine ride, and crossed the starting line almost as one to the roar of the crowd.

Down the ramp and up over the jump, twirling their boards almost in unison, then the other two peeled away through the flight rings and Knuckles briefly had the track to himself. The announcer's balloon slipped overhead, and he caught part of the chatter - speculation on who the mystery competitor was and how NiGHTS had gotten into the race with no entry - but ignored it. He could feel someone coming up behind him, and swerved sharply left and up, pulling a neat flip over Storm as the albatross tried to clobber him, dropping back down to his right and slightly behind, just where Knuckles could land a solid punch to the feathered shoulder. Storm somehow managed to drop and cling to his board as it rolled, but lost ground while getting to his feet. Rouge dropped back into view as the now-frozen curtains of ore came into sight, but as she started to duck through the gap they suddenly thawed. The weight of the falling mud forced the board's nose down to the ground, and Knuckles heard the bat yelp as she was bucked forward through the mess herself. Fortunately, she sounded more outraged then hurt. The echidna pushed his board up to maximum speed, dove through a new gap in the orefall, and plunged into the shortcut tunnel with the albatross bellowing behind him. NiGHTS was nowhere to be seen at either end of the tunnel, and whether Tails' work was truly better than Wave's, or Storm's weight was slowing him down, Knuckles kept gradually increasing his lead. He pushed his board hard to the machine ride, scooping rings as he went, both to recharge it and to prevent Storm from getting them. He could hear Storm growling threats behind him as the machine swung them one last time toward the finish line, but the grey albatross never had a chance to catch up before Knuckles raced his board across the goal.


	18. A Dream Stands Alone

18. A Dream Stands Alone

NiGHTS had been reasonably amused by the race, and highly amused by the response of the crowds and the other racers to the freezing of the mud beneath the track. NiGHTS didn't entirely understand _why_ the track had hot, bubbling mud below it, when it clearly should have been molten ore - in fact the Nightmaren's initial thought had been to convert the mud to actual ore, until NiGHTS realized that the dokan falling off the track at that same time wouldn't survive contact with the ore– _come to think of it, that's probably why it wasn't ore in the first place. But why have anything at all, then?_

But humans and dokan were often incomprehensible, and the unexpected shift in the weather was more interesting to the Nightmaren. Weather in Nightopia was generally clear and calm, if not actually sunny, but occasionally windy. It was in Nightmare that one was apt to find storms or fog, and the dark clouds and wind-whipped rain NiGHTS now encountered would fit all too neatly into that darker world. However, the essential unreality of Nightmare was such that rain was not truly 'wet' any more than water was, and this chill dampness was far more tangible than any NiGHTS had encountered before. Exhilarated by the novelty, NiGHTS stepped on the hoverboard again and went rocketing through the rain, climbing high enough to slide into the lower wisps of cloud. _Yikes! It's WET! Clouds at home are wispy bits of fluff! _Light flashed inside the clouds once, twice, and a large bolt of lightning stabbed up from the ground several miles from NiGHTS' location. Even that far away, NiGHTS could feel the static, and the hoverboard faltered. Lightning in Nightmare was not hazardous to Nightmarens, but NiGHTS decided not to find out if Earthly lightning was the same. Frying to a crisp did not sound at all amusing, at least on the part of the principle victim. NiGHTS dismissed the board, was mildly surprised when it actually vanished as commanded, and headed away from the lightning-generating part of the storm. The wind shoved the Nightmaren along as if it too was eager to be out of reach.

_I wish Octopaw were here_, NiGHTS thought suddenly. _It's gotten so easy to follow his trail; trying to do it in this storm would be a challenge, and great fun._ Octopaw was a timid little dream octopus, who left a trail of orange hoops in midair when he traveled. Generally NiGHTS challenged dreamers to try to match NiGHTS' own ability at ducking through the hoops and collecting dream chips in rapid succession while they were Dualized. It built confidence in the Dreamer, both self confidence and trust in NiGHTS, which was critical in the lessons they had to learn.

_Oh yes, I know about the lessons, and how Wizeman is supposed to__** play**__ the evil villain to show the dreamers what they must do and spur them on to accomplish it, but I also know that Wizeman is by no means playing. Which is why __**I**__ get dragged into the whole affair. I shouldn't have to spend my time making sure Wizeman doesn't do more than __**scare**__ them with the threat of capturing their Ideya. Reala doesn't think I know, but I do, even as he schemes to leash me again so that Wizeman can take over everything at will. But that's not going to happen, even though I have to keep sacrificing my free time to fight them back._

The question though, was what was Wizeman trying to do? Breaking through into the waking world was certainly an accomplishment, but what was the end goal? _Wizeman isn't the sort to want random terror, no matter what image he might display for the Dreamers. Tails' Nightmaren attackers were doing what they'd been ordered to do; the first ones that Sonic encountered were after the Dreamcaster, which Wizeman doubtless wanted back. But the ones that Sonic fought off at the playground were simply running loose– and Wizeman never, ever leaves his creations to run loose. _

_Except for the one that ran away completely, and he'll snatch me back if he ever gets the chance._ And then would come a final dissolution, for there was no way that Wizeman would ever trust NiGHTS not to run wild again, no matter how chained up and mind-controlled. NiGHTS shivered. _I saw it happen to the others. He will __**not**__ do the same to me!_ Only Reala, of all the first-level Nightmarens, had stayed loyal, and NiGHTS occasionally wondered what flaw had kept him that way. Perhaps the same flaw that made him 'male', for alone of all the first-level Nightmarens, Reala seemed to have a fixed gender, that did not change with the Dreamer's perceptions. Helen, Will, Maria and Charlie, Claire and Elliot, Tails and Amy all saw Reala as a 'he' although NiGHTS was perceived as female by half of them.

Something moved rapidly below NiGHTS, but was gone before the jester could see it clearly. It did interrupt the Nightmaren's brooding, however, and NiGHTS dropped rapidly down to treetop level. Adopting a more cautious approach, NiGHTS glided carefully through the branches, occasionally landing to step from limb to limb where there was no room to fly.

Several short chains of golden rings glowed in the darkness below the rain-drenched canopy.

And then the furthest chain winked out, one after the other, as a shadow moved across them. The Nightmaren edged quietly closer, but the mysterious collector was gone. Another chain came into view as NiGHTS moved, and also vanished 1-2-3. Moving as stealthily as possible, NiGHTS settled on a branch directly above the nearest set of rings. The rain trickled and dripped on leaves and branches but didn't seem to touch the clear golden glow, which spotlighted its sources but cast little light into the darkness. Fortunately, Nightmarens had excellent night vision.

The shadowy form whipped out of the woods, raced along the ring trail, and extinguished each shiny loop as it reached it, leaving only a faint melody behind. NiGHTS waited until it was clear that the Weasong was gone, then floated down to the ground. The third-level Nightmaren did not return, but neither did the rings, though the jester waited for several times the normal 'recharge' period. NiGHTS wasn't certain what caused the rings to form, but had noticed that after a (usually short) period of time they tended to reappear in the same spots, or nearly so. This time, they did not.

NiGHTS floated slowly along where the rings had been. "The power's gone," the Nightmaren said thoughtfully. One thing NiGHTS had discovered while helping Dreamers was that often, speaking a problem aloud seemed to help inspire a solution. In this case, the Dreamer was several miles away, but perhaps speaking to oneself worked as well. "There should be a faint seepage here, as there was along the other lines, that permits entry of the energy that concretes into the rings. . . ." Chaos energy, Tails and the others had called it. The energy that underlay the world, perhaps? But the rings were being collected and the seeps themselves stolen? Or blocked, somehow?

"That was a Weasong. They hunt Dreamers who weasel out of music lessons or practices, stealing the notes off their sheet music or worldstaves. But why collect rings?"

Worldstaves were musical staves made of dreamstuff and blown up huge; dreams vary from Dreamer to Dreamer, but typically the musical notes on dreamstaves needed to be played or physically tagged in sequence to avoid some calamity - and of course if the Weasongs stole the notes then the Dreamer couldn't play them. NiGHTS floated to where (the jester thought) several other chains had been, but was unable to find any energy seeps there either. "Even if the Weasongs confused the rings with notes, how did they stop the energy leaks?"

NiGHTS rose into the air just enough to clear the trees, and skimmed to the edge of the forest. Not a ring was to be seen in clearings or among the boughs, but there were two chains a hundred yards or so beyond the woods. NiGHTS darted out to them, reached a hand down to catch up the rings in one line, then reversed and retraced the line, feeling the faint aura of Chaos energy left behind. The jester than dropped almost to the ground beside the other set of rings and felt between the golden tori, again detecting the seeping energy. Back to the previous line, and the aura was still there; it did not appear to fade after the rings were removed.

NiGHTS sat back on thin air, idly rattling the rings around one wrist and thinking hard. A soft chorus of notes sounded, and the Nightmaren twisted quickly to meet a Weasong's hard stare. The third-level Nightmaren stood poised on its rearmost two pairs of legs, the uppermost pair holding a ring in each claw, and the second pair folded across its lower chest, encircled by dozens more. More notes spilled into the air as the violet, weasel-shaped head waved from side-to-side on the long neck, but the blank-eyed stare never left NiGHTS' face. The volume of the music grew as more Weasongs emerged from the forest, rippling on their eight legs like caterpillars. The ring-bearer slipped back into the growing crowd as NiGHTS rose to a standing posture, glaring back at a dozen pairs of blank white eyes. The music grew harsher and darker as the Weasongs began to circle around their intended prey, bearing fangs that were far too large to have been concealed in their closed mouths. NiGHTS summoned the invisible flute (surprisingly hard to do without closing one's eyes!) and began to play an answering challenge. A Weasong leapt, and NiGHTS slipped sideways, then took a quick loop around the beast. The paralooped Nightmaren vanished, but several more leaped at the jester. Once they had been similarly vanquished, the rest of the pack fell back. They milled about each other like termites, caught between the urge to attack and the urge to flee. NiGHTS (who had kept playing the entire time) sharpened the tune from the flute, playing shriller, staccato notes. The Weasongs melodies went flat and muted in response. They were about to leave, clearly.

But then came a bass rumble through the air, like thunder. NiGHTS could feel the sound from sternum to boot tips. _Uh-oh. _NiGHTS increased the tempo and threat of the flute music. _If I can just get them to leave . . . _

Too late. Emboldened by the approaching rumbles, the Weasongs surged forward again to attack. NiGHTS spun and looped frantically, trying to get clear of them to face the approaching musician undistracted. Drums throbbed deeply, and now higher, mid-staff notes could be heard as well, tubas and trumpets, cellos and violins - an entire symphony of dangerously exciting music; the kind that tells the audience that the movie hero is in BIG trouble. And then, accompanied by the snapping of tree trunks as well as its own polyphonic chorus, Sonatapede emerged from the forest.

NiGHTS managed to dodge the last three Weasongs and fell back a hundred feet, evaluating the situation. Sonatapede was a second-level Nightmaren, essentially a nightmarish version of a centipede, except that for every pair of legs that touched the ground (when the beast wasn't flying) another pair held or played some sort of instrument. Its not-so-tiny spiracles, holes used by real centipedes for breathing provided the 'breath' for flutes, trumpets, saxophones, and other woodwinds or brass instruments, while several pairs of legs pounded desperately on pianos and organs braced on the segmented back by still more legs. As with some of the other second-levels, the trick to defeating Sonatapede was to break it up first, by tagging it with a paraloop, which unraveled it into a worldstaff; the Dreamer then had to play the scribed melody on an instrument of their own before the creature could reorganize itself back to its proper form_. Except that in this case, there is no Dreamer; and this is certainly no Nightmare of Tails'! This thing must be acting on Wizeman's orders, but– AHA! _NiGHTS suddenly realized what the beast was doing, if not why. Every one of Sonatapede's legs had at least one and usually several gold rings around it. Some legs, in fact, were nearly rigid, sheathed from 'shoulder' to claw in the things. Sonatapede glared at NiGHTS with its tiny eyes, then surged forward, spiky mandibles wide to bite.

"Come on, then!," NiGHTS crowed and looped up and around, gaining height. The centipede halted below, instruments bellowing out a challenge. NiGHTS drove down and paralooped near the middle of the creature. Half a dozen or so rings flared and vanished, and the non-broken up opponent whipped its head around and snapped hard, driving several spikes into NiGHTS calf. NiGHTS gasped, and tried to pull away but the fire and ice jolting from the leg made the jester reconsider - FAST.

_That . . . must . . . be . . . pain. Huh, even my thoughts are gasping. _Pain was a dimly understood concept in the dream worlds; there were punishments and tortures that no daylander could understand, but hitherto NiGHTS had known physical pain more from Dreamer's memories than from personal experience. Uncertain how to react - pulling away was clearly bad! - NiGHTS banged a fist against one of the mandibles. Startled, Sonatapede let go, and the jester shot rapidly upwards. Pausing at a safe height, NiGHTS looked at the damaged leg. No blood, of course, but three holes were punched right through and another pair showed as deep imprints. NiGHTS touched the holes, tentatively, and two of the gold rings the Nightmaren was still carrying flashed and vanished, as did the injuries. NiGHTS blinked at the remaining rings, then looked down at the centipede, who did not appear to be able to get off the ground in this world. _Well, that's good, at least. And I know what I need to do now._

NiGHTS dove at Sonatapede, looped and darted back up to evade the return strike, then dipped down again. And again. After a number of runs, the rings had vanished along one whole side of the beast. NiGHTS swooped down again, looped - and Sonatapede unraveled like a worn sock, instruments falling everywhere as the strands of dreamstuff rearranged themselves into a shining silver music staff with golden notes strung along it. Immediately NiGHTS summoned the flute and started to play.

When NiGHTS had aided Dreamers against this particular second-level, the worldstaff had formed and held motionless for thirty seconds or so, then collapsed back into centipede form with the instruments popping back to their places as dream things do. This time, the staff itself writhed like a centipede, making it difficult to read the notes held thereon. NiGHTS misplayed one, two, three notes, and Sonatapede was itself again, grounded, instrument-bedecked, and _furious_. With a dissonant fanfare, it charged, and attempted to jump at its foe, which failed rather miserably. Sonatapede blew another blast and rippled along below NiGHTS playing what was surely a medley of insults.

NiGHTS made a face as only a dream-creature could, then repeated the dive-and-paraloop maneuver. Sonatapede, protections already removed, dissolved into the Worldstaff again. NiGHTS played the resultant score frantically, but again could not read all the notes on the heaving lines correctly. _At least I seem to have started where I left off before. I didn't have to go back to the beginning. Oh, look. Reinforcements, what fun. _As Sonatapede reformed, a swarm of Weasongs boiled out of the woods and wove themselves around the many legs of the monster. Abruptly, two of the legs snatched a Weasong and hurled it up through the air. _Well, I __**had **__been thinking I was bored. _NiGHTS dove in again, now having to weave through flying Weasongs, who managed to drift down rather than falling to the ground. The resulting reduction in speed gave Sonatapede a chance to eel around and snap at the jester, cutting the attack short. Still, after several foiled attempts NiGHTS managed to get the Worldstaff to reappear. The problem now was that the air was full of drifting, snapping Weasongs, who both obscured the musical score and distracted the musician. It took two more tries for NiGHTS to finish the tune and see both the second-level Nightmaren and its third-level compatriots puff into vapor. Flopping back in midair, the Jester caught sight of a darker shape above.

"Reala!" NiGHTS challenged, rising up to the level of the other first-level. "What are you doing here? Are you the one who sent Sonatapede to collect the rings?"

Reala's expression of distaste shifted to surprise. "Rings? What are you talking about?" NiGHTS scowled, but got no sense that the other was dissembling. Reala appeared to genuinely have no idea. Which was unusual . . . and troubling. NiGHTS hated being troubled.

"The golden rings, the ones made of what the daylanders call Chaos energy. The Weasongs were collecting them for Sonatapede, and somehow blocking the seeps that form them." NiGHTS shook the arm that still had a few encircling it. The other's blue eyes snapped to the softly chiming tori, then Reala's expression went unreadable. His sense suggested he was deeply troubled himself.

The red and black jester shook his head. "I give you my word on this, dear sibling, this is none of my doing." A long pause, then he added slowly. "Or knowing. Our Master seems to be playing his own games at the moment."

Uncharacteristically grave, NiGHTS eyed Reala. "I thought you were Wizeman's primary seneschal. You know everything that he does, and give the actual orders."

Reala's expression matched NiGHTS'. "I thought so too." He pulled a small object out of his vest pocket and turned it in his fingers. "I . . . do not like what seems to be going on here. Since you do not seem to be needed at the moment by your Dreamer . . . would you be willing to take this, and tell me what you can find? I fear that Master Wizeman intends to overturn all the worlds; I do not know if that _can_ be done, but I fear the attempt could damage more worlds than ours and this. We might both find freedom from our Master in dissolution of all we know."

NiGHTS took the small talisman, which resembled the Dreamcaster, but carried far less power. It would allow communication between the two. It would also allow Reala to track him, but suddenly that was of little import. Dropping it into a boot, the purple jester nodded gravely at the crimson one. "I will look, and tell you what I find."


	19. Jungle Beat

A/N: Hello again. I've uploaded some edits in chapters 9, 13-15, and 17, where I had some continuity errors. Too much to do and not enough time to do it in. I'm going to try and finish the story off this time, but I make no promises!

19. Jungle Beat

Sonic paused at the top of the ramp with one foot on his hoverboard, which Tails had named the Blue Star, and one foot on the ground while he considered his next move. Around him, massive branches as thick as a dokan was tall bore leaves that were blanket-sized or larger. Moisture dripped as if the place were a rain forest, and the humidity was nearly enough to make his spikes frizz. The last semifinal race was about to begin, which would let him put that noisy parrot in his place. "I'll show him who's the fastest thing on the planet," Sonic muttered. Motion caught his eye, and he grinned wryly as he looked up to see Shadow gliding down a nearby ramp. _**Speaking **__of who's the fastest thing on the planet . . . . _But then, Shadow was a known quantity at this point - at least speed-wise - and rarely seemed that concerned about challenging the blue hedgehog. He wouldn't back down from a challenge, but he didn't seem to care about testing himself against all comers either. Sonic didn't fully understand the attitude, but supposed it came from being the so-called Ultimate Life-Form.

"Come on, Sonic!" Knuckles bellowed from below. "What's wrong? You scared of heights all of a sudden?"

The blue hedgehog blinked, then shook himself. "Better stand clear, Knuckles!" he called back, "By the time you see me, it's too late to dodge!" He shoved himself forward onto the slope, dropping his weight neatly midboard. Too far forward would flip him, and too far back would give him a speed boost. He wanted to see how much speed the drop alone would net him. As the ramp started to curl out and up, he shifted his weight back and gave himself just enough boost to pull a triple spin. The loudspeaker crackled overhead, giving the ten-minute warning as he landed.

"Hah!" he declared, only partly to Knuckles' reaction to his trick. The blue hedgehog spotted Tails beside the echidna and grinned at his 'little brother' as he flipped the board up, then himself off to catch it under one arm as he landed on his feet.

"That's cool, Sonic! When did you learn those techniques?" The cub's eyes were dancing, and he seemed in better spirits than he'd been since the start of the dream mess.

Sonic chuckled, but before he could answer another voice cut across between them.

"Not very impressive for someone of your reputation." The words were dismissive, but the tone was challenging. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles looked up to see Jet the Hawk's parrot-green form standing on a nearby bough.

"You–" Sonic wasn't sure how to respond. He saw Tails and Knuckles bristling - and Knuckles spikes further bristling as the echidna clenched his fists - but a fight would certainly disqualify the team, and he'd rather beat the parrot on his own vaunted ground –er, air.

"You know," Jet continued conversationally, sitting down on the branch, "I've checked you out, actually. Not bad; I admit you're pretty fast on your feet. But here, it's a whole different story when riding with Extreme Gear! You see, to be the fastest on a Gear, you have to become one with the wind! Without wings, well, you might as well kiss the ground and go home." Jet leapt to his feet, then to another branch, and vanished among the leaves, laughter trailing behind like a vine.

"Who does he think he is?" demanded Knuckles.

"The 'Great Wind Chaser' or something," said Sonic. "Come on, I've heard you make those sorts of boasts a hundred times!"

The echidna relaxed slightly and folded his arms beneath the white crescent on his chest. "Hmph. If you don't beat him in the race, Sonic, I'm going to beat him after it."

"Careful, Knuckles," cautioned the hedgehog, "don't get us disqualified before the grand finale. Tails? You okay, buddy?"

The young fox had been staring into the distance, his cub-like exuberance vanished. "Sorry Sonic," he said, startled back into the present, "I just need to fine-tune some things, and then your Extreme Gear will be at a hundred percent."

"Hey Tails, you always do your best, so don't worry." The cub's vehemence surprised the hedgehog.

Tails shook his head. "Yeah, but she has a point; she's a really brilliant mecha mechanic. Sonic! Don't worry; I'll unlock the secret of the Extreme Gear for us!"

_She? Oh, that mechanic of the Rogues'. He's still brooding over that sneer of hers. _Sonic clapped him on the shoulder. "I don't doubt it for an instant." He looked up, where the Babylon Rogues' leader had vanished._ I don't think that Jet's all talk, though. I'd better be on my toes during this competition._ "Best hurry if you want to make any last adjustments, Tails. I'll meet you at the starting line."

Tails scuttled off, and Sonic noticed a white shape drop off a branch to follow the cub. He started to call a warning, but Knuckles turned him toward the starting area. "It's just Rouge," said the echidna calmly. "She thinks the Rogues are up to something, and so does Shadow. I'm not sure if they're working with Eggman or both trying to use each other, but _Rouge _is definitely on our side right now." Then he winked at Sonic. "Or at least until the Chaos Emeralds are brought out for the final race!"

Sonic laughed. "Old Eggy'd better have a pretty good trick up his sleeve to keep her from stealing them under everyone's noses!" He jogged off, Knuckles thudding along beside him.

The starting area teemed with, well, teams. Sonic's team and the Babylon Rogues each had two entrants qualified for the final race, but for everyone else, this was their last chance to get in. Amy was there talking to Big (who had been supposed to compete against Knuckles but found a 'nice fishing hole place' on the way to the factory and missed the race) and Cream, who was bouncing excitedly next to her board. Sonic grinned at the little rabbit's eagerness; her long ears were alternately flapping as she bounced or being clutched under her chin in both hands. She was far and away the youngest of the competitors in this round, and in the prior two, only Tails came close to her in age. Not really wanting to join the noisy throng, Sonic steered for a quiet corner.

He wasn't the first one with the idea. "Hello, Sonic, Knuckles," Shadow greeted them.

"Hi, Shadow," replied the blue hedgehog. "Ready to get beaten?" Knuckles nodded at Shadow, and snorted at Sonic's comment.

The black hedgehog arched a brow. It seemed to be becoming his standard response to Sonic's jests. "By you, or by him?" A tilt of the head drew Sonic's attention to the far end of the area, where the green hawk lounged atop a wall, idly drumming his fingers on his board.

"Maybe by both of us," Sonic smirked.

Shadow shrugged slightly. "That would be unexpected." He didn't really seem to be paying attention, looking over at the other teams. He frowned suddenly as a fight broke out between two groups. As more joined the brawl, Knuckles left the hedgehogs, working his way into the crowd. Robot referees waded in to break it the fight up, and Amy pulled out her hammer to warn possible combatants away from Team Rose. Big simply planted his massive form between the fight and his teammates. "Do you think it's safe for Cream to be out there? The other racers seem to be getting a bit . . . desperate. This will be a violent race, I think."

"Are you expecting me to lose the race while guarding her?" Sonic asked, startled. Shadow was many things, but he hadn't thought dishonest was one of them!

Shadow turned back to Sonic. "That would be unethical, wouldn't it? Actually, I was thinking that _you_, with two thirds of your team already qualified, have the best chance to win the final, and that _I_ could watch Dr. Eggman better from the stands than from in the race. You would tell me if you found something out about his plans, wouldn't you? That way I can keep an eye on Cream in this race. Subtly, of course."

"You certainly do subtle better than I do," agreed Sonic. Sonic himself would never willingly forfeit a challenge, but Shadow was making sense. And if Shadow kept guard on Cream, Sonic wouldn't have to feel guilty for not doing so. "And sure, if I find anything out about what Eggman's up to, you'll be the first to know." The two hedgehogs watched as several of the brawlers were escorted away by the robots. One wore a G.U.N. patch on his sleeve. Knuckles' red form was clearly visible between a couple of humans, far enough away from the scrum to be clearly not involved, but close enough to see and hear what was going on. Sonic wasn't sure if it was the fight or the gossip that interested the echidna. "Won't G.U.N. object if you don't win?"

"Well, I never actually agreed to win; I agreed to enter, because Rouge wanted a fourth team member. I'm sure she invited me expecting me to win, but that wasn't a stated condition. And," he added as Tails came running up with Sonic's board, "you may have noticed that she's shadowing youngsters as well." As he spoke, Rouge glided in behind Tails, passing over the cub's head without so much as a glance, giving no sign that she'd followed him on his errand.

"Hi, Shadow," panted Tails, "here's your board, Sonic. If they can beat it this time - well . . . they just can't. It's as good as I can make it, and you can beat anybody in a race!"

"Breathe, Tails!" Amused, Sonic looked the azure hoverboard over. Not even a fingerprint marred the finish_. _"Like I said, you always do your best, so I'm not at all worried about the performance of this board. I'll take on Rouge, Rogues or Eggman on this and beat the lot of them!"

The cub grinned at his friend. Omochao called over the loudspeakers for the racers to assemble, and the crowd started to thin. Knuckles, Tails, and Rouge joined the people heading for the stands; Sonic and Shadow shouldered their boards and approached the line for the start.

There were only eight contestants; apparently the others had been disqualified because of the fight. As the countdown started, Sonic kept a close eye on the beam of light that marked the start, and the other eye on Jet, who had the pole position. Sonic had taken the second slot, and Shadow had planted Cream in third, between Sonic and himself. As the green hawk started to move, both hedgehogs did the same, gauging their speed to match his. Ignoring the flash as one of the other racers mis-timed the start, Sonic and Shadow leapt on their boards in unison with each other and Jet. Somewhat to Sonic's surprise, the little rabbit was only fractionally behind, and the four dashed down the opening ramp in a nearly straight line. The other racers pulled in against the inner rail, forming a much more ragged line behind them. Sonic made it slightly ahead at the first jump and tipped the nose of his board up, flipping neatly in midair. He gained enough height to land on a rail and skid his board along it. Cream and Shadow swung past him as the huge branch that formed the main path curled away; it would double back again shortly, the rail forming a neat, bridging shortcut. Spotting the end of the rail, Sonic prepared to pull another trick that would land him neatly on the pathway. Instead, he was bowled over in midair by something that felt like a feathered baseball bat. He didn't fall too far; a net caught him and his board and then a tractor beam or something raised him back up to track level. He grabbed his board and landed running, furious at whomever had hit him._ And I've got a pretty good idea who it was. I definitely saw something green._

Sonic scanned the other racers as he wove his way through the pack. As expected, he saw no one else with green gear - _and certainly no one else with green feathers! _ One human racer had a green jacket on, but it was the wrong shade, and anyway, he was bulling his way through one of the strong-guy shortcuts that Knuckles favored. Another human competitor whipped a chain he'd been carrying around his waist and lashed the end at a petite lemur. She tossed up a mallet similar to Amy's as a shield, which prevented the chain from actually hitting her, but she lost both the mallet and her balance and went tumbling along the track with her board. The man leaped his board over his fallen foe and closed behind Cream, who had Cheese flying escort as fast as his little chao wings could flap. Sonic snarled involuntarily and increased his speed as the chain started to spin again. _Where's Shadow? He said– _ The thought was cut short as a shadow - a Shadow - dropped out of the branches above, and as the chain whipped past over the dark head, Shadow cut so close behind the human that the tip of the dokan's board clipped the rear of the other - and chain-man went tumbling in his turn. The Ultimate Life-form tipped Sonic a wink and a slight nod as the Blue Star sped past him.

Cream called out 'Hi, Mr. Sonic!" as he caught up with her and he flashed her a quick grin before leaping his board past a screen of giant leaves to another grind rail. A flurry of sparks ahead showed clearly where Jet was grinding the same rail. There was no way that Sonic had discovered to increase speed while grinding, so he was no closer to Jet when the hawk dropped off and vanished through the mouth of a giant knothole. Sonic followed, kicking the tail of his board for more speed as soon as he hit the track.

He nearly jumped off his board as he erupted out of the short tunnel and landed on the back of a gigantic centipede. He didn't quite panic - Sonic the Hedgehog never panicked - but his mind raced to work out whether this was an Eggman trick, or a dream creature, or what. He almost jumped off it anyway, but the sight of Jet the Hawk gliding rapidly up the spiral formed by the coiled back spurred him upwards as well. Jet jumped off into another tunnel, and Sonic jumped after him, heartened to see that he'd managed to gain on the bird. He cast a quick glance over his shoulder and was surprised to see Cream was the only person visible behind him, just landing on another giant centipede. Shadow shot out of the tunnel behind her, but none of the other competitors were in sight.

Sonic snapped his gaze back to the front as he reached a hairpin turn, hitting the air brakes of his board hard as the track doubled back on itself, then surging forward into the next jump. He stomped back hard to maximize his speed burst, and hurtled up . . . across . . . and down onto a spider web as large as a circus tent. Instinctively he tried to brake, not wanting to become entangled or adhered in the inch-thick strands. He didn't stick - he bounced on it like a giant trampoline - but fumbled his board badly as he landed on a slope above the starting line and slid ignominiously down on his rear. He looked up at the crowd in the stands to see Amy, Tails and Knuckles right there in the front row. Amy and Tails wore concerned expressions, but he was dead certain that the echidna was smirking. Blushing furiously - and furious at himself for such a mistake - Sonic the Hedgehog snatched up his board and hurled it ahead, racing it for two steps and leaping to land on it with enough force to shoot it forward like wet soap.

Sonic shoved the fall out of his mind and focused in on Jet. Now he pushed the Blue Star on as fast as Tails' most recent modifications allowed, following the route he'd mapped out during the first lap. Follow the track along a massive limb, rail-grind, leap back to the track again; now the green hawk was glancing back rather nervously. Jet increased his own speed, and Sonic found a bit more power in his board. The hawk struck out at the hedgehog abruptly with a fan made of feathers on a long stick, and lost ground. Sonic managed not to lose any as he swerved out of reach of the fan, and raced through a curtain of leaves with the leading edge of the Blue Star lapping the tail of Jet's board by about four inches. The two boards veered in opposite directions as the branch split, then fell back together as the limb rejoined. Ducking through the tunnel, they entered the centipedes' cave for the second time.

Sonic frowned, noticing that it was decidedly darker in the cave this time. Several lights glowed around the edges of the cavern; luminescent fungi that currently did more to light themselves up than brighten the ir surroundings. The centipedes also were illuminated; pale blue spots marked the back corners of each segment. The tunnel of leaves and vines was noticeably darker as her doubled around the hairpin and made the next jump. This time he was expecting the spider's web and used it as a trampoline, tossing himself and his board high into the darkening sky, (getting a brief glimpse of the western sky blazing a cloudless orange,) and speeding down the final ramp to the start line in perfect tandem with Jet the Hawk. "Sky Master, huh?" taunted Sonic. "I think I've got the hang of your method now!" The hedgehog waved at Tails and Knuckles (and Amy) then kicked his board under an arm and pulled a spindash. He heard Jet's startled squawk as he outdistanced the bird and jumped for the grind rail, neatly tossing the Blue Star back under his feet. _Third time's the charm_, he thought, _and this lap I'm going to win!_ When he dropped off the grind rail, however his first thought was that he'd gotten somehow lost - the previously bark-grey track was now covered in snow! "That NiGHTS hasn't turned up again, has he?" Sonic twisted, looking for the jester, distracted enough that he collided with an overgrown leaf petiole and toppled into the snow. Which was neither wet nor cold although it was very powdery. It was more like falling into a tub of flour, although the rank smell didn't encourage tasting. Sneezing, the hedgehog floundered to his feet and tried to locate his board. Sudden shouts behind him gave him too little warning, and he went down again into the white stuff as two bodies landed on top of him. One was human, by the size; the other was Jet, by the voice. Said voice choked off at once and was replaced by coughing and spluttering - apparently the dokan hawk had gotten a mouthful of the powder. _Good thing I kept MY mouth shut! _Sonic got his eyes clear enough to locate his board, crowded against the track rail by Jet's silver-and-green one and an unfamiliar banana-yellow. He extracted the Blue Star, and in a nod to good sportsmanship pushed the other two in the direction of their fallen riders. The human woman, wheezing and wiping her face with a neckerchief, caught hers under one foot and nodded thanks. Jet scowled as well as he could while still coughing hard and stopped his own board the same way. Sonic scooted away on his board, before anyone else could come around the bend and add to the pile up, or the dust in the air.

Along the track, artificial lights were now coming on to supplement the glowing fungi, which really were everywhere now. Slowing to navigate around a pile of false snow, Sonic caught motion out of the corner of one eye and glanced over to discover the source of the white fall. A huge mushroom was flaring its cap, not rapidly but steadily, and as it did so, pale spores silted out from the gills. Sonic put two and two together and looked up. He didn't see the underside of huge vines and limbs he'd seen earlier, but veritable acres of slitted fungal gills, all with more white spores drifting silent down. The hedgehog wished briefly for a neckerchief or a dust mask of his own then pushed the Blue Star back into top gear._ If I keep my speed up, maybe I can stay out of my own dust. I hope. _He rode the centipedes through a cave made almost festive by foxfire and snowy spores, bounced off a dusty spider web, and slid across the finish line unchallenged and well-smeared with ashy spores. Most of the crowd had cleared out. Big's placid form loomed beneath the cat's pink umbrella, which was liberally piled with spores. Amy and Tails looked very small as they huddled beneath the umbrella as well. Rouge was sitting on the track rail, a violet silk scarf wrapped over her head and across her muzzle. Omochao sat disconsolately in his little balloon above the track, not even bothering to comment on Sonic's win.

"Sonic! You won!" cheered Amy. Tails stepped solemnly forward and offered his friend a dust mask. He and Amy were already wearing them.

"Didn't you offer Big a mask?" asked Sonic, as he gratefully accepted it and put it on.

Tails shrugged. "Of course, but he said the spores don't bother him because he's higher up than we are.

" Most of the competitors quit after the spores started falling, and the audience left with them. Knuckles wanted to stay, but he seems to be allergic to the spores, even with the mask."

"Really?" Sonic was surprised. He looked up as three shapes appeared at the top of the ramp and headed for the finish line. Climbing over the rail to join his friends, he continued, "I'd have thought with those giant mushrooms on Angel Island he'd be used to it."

"So did he," said Rouge as she joined them. "Apparently they're a different species, and they don't spore quite this . . . vehemently." She skipped sideways, jostling Big as Jet jumped over the rail and shoved past the group. A short hard stare at Sonic was all the notice he paid them. The other two figures proved to actually be three people: Shadow carrying Cream piggyback, and the woman who had taken the tumble with Jet. She said something to Shadow - or maybe Cream, since it was the bunny who nodded - and wearily approached Sonic and his friends.

"Good race, Sonic," she said hoarsely. "I hadn't really expected to win, but I'd hoped to make a bit better showing. This is official, isn't it? The race wasn't cancelled and they forgot to tell us?" She accepted a mask from Tails, who had already handed a pair to Shadow and Cream.

"Sonic won." Even Omochao sounded raspy, toy robot though he was. He landed his balloon and looked at them with glowing yellow eyes. "Sonic first, Jet second. I can't place Shadow or Cream, since the rules do specify one board per person and one person on a board, so you get third, Clara. Everyone else was officially disqualified for failing to finish. Sonic and his team and Jet and his team are the only ones in the finals, and will compete for the set of seven Chaos Emeralds, all of which have been turned in except the two held by Sonic and the Rogues." The robot gave a small, tinny cough. "Final race will be held in the Babylon Desert Saturday. I'm going file a complaint with the robot's union against Doctor Eggman; these spores can't be healthy to breathe. Let's go before we get buried in this stuff."

Although Omochao could be annoying, no one argued the point. Big took Cream from Shadow, Amy took the rabbit's board from Cream, and they all headed for their hotels.


	20. Red and Black, Black and Red

20. Red and Black, Black and Red

It was raining in Future City. Awnings had automatically unfurled over the sidewalks and elevated walkways, and the headlights and taillights of vehicles both ground-based and flying struck sparks of white and red in millions of raindrops. On a rooftop, hidden from view of any of the vehicles or the few pedestrians, Reala brooded. The three heroes and the three thieves would be entering the final race at the end of the week. Whichever group won, Reala intended to have the Chaos Emeralds; what was at stake was too important for the Dreamcaster to not be recharged. It would be simpler, probably, if the blue hedgehog and his friends won, given that they considered themselves to be heroes. Heroes could be persuaded to return the Dreamcaster as the rightful property of Nightmare, with Reala as the Nightmaren representative. The thieves would be less likely to part with their spoils without suitable remuneration, and Reala's stock of real-world valuables was utterly nonexistent. Regrettably, it was the thieves that would be more likely to accept aid in achieving the win. Reala had considered offering to 'help' one of Sonic's group, but the hedgehog's oh-so-noble returning of his rivals' boards in the last race suggested that would be a tactical error, not only unaccepted but possibly offensive. Still the fact that all three of the group had won through was good for Reala's plans.

Things were not so good on the second front. The third-levels were of no consequence still, but after happening across the battle between NiGHTS and Sonatapede, the crimson jester had begun a serious search for second-level Nightmarens. Eight had been located, not counting the musical centipede. Sonatapede itself apparently had been returned to Nightmare and was unable to recross into the waking world. _Which means I know one certain way to return the second-levels to Nightmare, but I really don't want to do it myself. I wonder if I could set them on NiGHTS somehow, and get them sent back that way?_ Normally 'setting them on NiGHTS' would be as simple as ordering them to catch his sibling, but the creatures were now refractory to Reala's commands. Dandy Lion had joined Sonatapede in returning early because the saber-toothed lion had dared to attack Reala while the latter was gathering information on the second-levels' current whereabouts. Reala had defeated the beast, of course, but the effort expended outweighed the results, in his opinion. Not to mention it was dangerous, which was another reason he preferred to arrange for someone else to do the chore. Subconsciously, Reala rubbed his right knee, where two of the Lion's claws had marked him._ Actually, if I didn't have to do it alone, I wouldn't mind, but given the choice of hunting them by myself or working with NiGHTS– I'll take the third option and get him to do it. _He stood up as he felt a sudden buildup of energy near him.

Shadow the Hedgehog stepped out of a flare of light that died as quickly as it had risen. His face was utterly expressionless, but there was a glint in his red eyes that suggested he was displeased. He looked the Nightmaren over and said, quietly, "You wanted to speak to me?"

Reala slowly sat down on the air, arranging himself cross-legged with his eyes on a level with Shadow's. He sorted rapidly through possible responses, discarding most of them and finally settling for a simple, "Yes."

Red-striped quills swayed as Shadow tilted his head. "'Yes?' No apology, no demands?" A pause, and the red eyes narrowed angrily. "No nightmares?"

Reala had made a tactical error when he'd called the dokan to join him. As Wizeman's major domo and chief lieutenant, he was accustomed to summoning other Nightmarens (with a few individual exceptions) as a human might summon a taxi or a waiter and punishing those who failed to respond quickly enough. Reala had contacted Shadow through the dark hedgehog's dreams, and when Shadow had declined his summons, the Nightmaren had casually grabbed a handful of Shadow's worst memories to repay the hedgehog with a nightmare. Two mistakes: first, while Nightmaren subordinates quickly yielded to coercion, the Ultimate Life-form rebelled; second, Shadow's worst memories were FAR worse than that of most dreamers, so Reala had inflicted a much greater penalty than he'd intended. Being mortified by the popular girl cutting you dead in front of the whole school, or terrified by the thought of an upcoming piano recital, rather paled in comparison to having your sister murdered and your father insanely rearranging your brain to further his own agenda. Unfortunately for Reala's plans, he had not previewed the memories before using them. He had not actually expected the hedgehog to come at all.

The Nightmaren dipped his head slightly in what might have been apology, or simply acknowledgment of the accusations. "I did not think you would believe an apology; I needed you here and you **were** going to come. However, I do apologize for the _degree_ of nightmare I left you with."

"Only because you think it will hinder your chances of enlisting my aid." Shadow snorted. Rain ran down his face and dripped off his spines, unheeded. "What do you want, Reala? Sonic will all but certainly win the Chaos Emeralds, and I can assure you that Tails will recharge that Dreamcaster and it will be returned– "

"Get down!" Reala's hand sliced across as something moved in the wet darkness. The hedgehog fell instantly silent and dropped to the roof as the Nightmaren peered through the gloom. A wan light appeared, scanning across the buildings as the Seeing Hand rotated, looking for NiGHTS? Or Reala himself?

"Wizeman hunts for us all," breathed the jester. "If he finds us . . . . I know what he can and will do to me and NiGHTS, but in _this_ world, I do not know what he can do to you. At the very least, he can trap you in your nightmares forever."

"Why are we chasing Emeralds instead of him? Is he too powerful to confront directly?" The hedgehog's voice was a soft as Reala's, making it difficult to tell if he was serious or sarcastic. Both beings held perfectly still and silent as the hand swept closer, turning a scant fifty yards away and proceeding up a different street.

Reala considered the 'feel' of the dokan beside him. Nightmarens could not read minds, as such, but he could tell that lies, or even evasions would be counterproductive this time. Shadow had been lied to and manipulated too often; already resentful, he would recognize the signs and become even more recalcitrant. The jester growled to himself, and drew on the power of the golden rings he'd collected on the way here to put up an umbrella; dream-stuff, but functional against the rain for a little while. Perhaps it would mollify the hedgehog somewhat. (And perhaps it wouldn't, but Reala was fed up with being wet.) "Do you know what dreams are for?" he asked.

Shadow flicked his hands through his quills, shaking the rain out. "For? The prevailing theory is that they are the brain processing the thoughts and activities of the day. An older view held that they were messages from the God or gods. Some people, then and now, believe that interpreting dreams can give important insights. My dreams exist mainly to torment me, I think." He scowled pointedly at Reala, then shook his head.

"You and the other Nightmarens and the Nightopians don't seem to fit, except that Maria told me about dreaming of someone like NiGHTS once."

That was interesting, and perhaps useful. "Which Maria? There have been many girls with that name, although most have been human."

"Maria was human. She was also my sister. Maria Robotnik; she lived on the Space Colony ARK fifty years ago."

"Ah, yes." Reala could recall every dreamer he had ever dealt with, although with the more common names it could be difficult to single out the correct Jimmy Brown. 'Robotnik' was nearly as uncommon as 'Maria' was common, however. "Maria Robotnik felt that her disease was effacing her, and people would forget Maria existed, leaving only the 'NIDS child'. With NiGHTS 'help' she discovered that she herself still had value, in spite of her illness. I don't recall her having a brother, though, particularly not a dokan."

"I wasn't created yet," replied Shadow. His tone discouraged further questions.

Reala didn't really care anyway. He needed the dokan's assistance, not his life story. "Nightopia has little purpose that we can discover save to provide homes for the dratted Nightopians and expansion space for Nightmare. Nightmare, on the other hand, serves a key purpose indeed. Most dreams are fluff– the brain organizing itself if you prefer to call it that. But some dreams exist to teach lessons that are needed in the waking world, and many of these are assigned to Nightmare." Reala laced his fingers together as he considered what to tell the hedgehog. _Mostly truth, and much of it_, he decided,_ but not necessarily all of it or all true. _

"Roughly, we pose a conflict between Nightmare and Nightopia, with the lesson to be learned as the crux. If the Dreamer can face their fear or accept the lesson, then Nightmare is driven back and Nightopia returns to peace. During the process, Ideya energy from the Dreamers - which they themselves cannot use - feeds both the Nightmarens and Nightopians involved. Originally, there were Nightopian champions, who sided with the Dreamers and gave them mobility and effectiveness within the realm of Nightopia; the ability to affect the dreams rather than merely pass through them. They . . . are no more."

"Your doing?" interrupted Shadow. "Or your master's?"

"Not mine; _I_ wasn't created yet. Beyond that, truly, I do not know. There were other Nightmarens in those days . . . . I suspect," here he dropped his voice lower, "that my Master may have been one of these, a first-level (if levels existed then) who thirsted for more power. I do not know, for no one in Nightmare survives from that time, save a few second-levels who are half-mad and mostly silent." _And the Seeing Hands guard those old ones closely_, he did not add. One of the deceased first-levels had questioned the old ones a little too closely; Wizeman had used Etheris as an example to discourage 'excess' curiosity among the other firsts. Reala had been scrupulously formal when setting those particular second-levels at tasks ever since, and did without them unless he could find no alternative.

The jester sat back slightly and returned his voice to a normal volume. "Today, the only Nightopians are the feeble-minded creatures your friend Knuckles is shepherding, and their king. They construct the dreams from images in the Dreamers' minds, but they are easy prey for even third-level Nightopians. The king can take down the third-levels, but has no interest in anything but its subjects. So, the first-level Nightmarens were created, and tasked with both staging the lessons and providing the necessary guidance to the Dreamers. Until the Master decided he needed more power, and instructed us to - shall we say - 'fail' the Dreamers?"

"Shall we say 'cheat'?" countered Shadow.

"_I_ would not, because what most of my brethren did was die. They pretended to obey our master while giving aid to the Dreamers anyway. Invariably they were caught, and their punishments were dire, and fatal. Only two remain: one rebelled and ran away; one remains at his post for the sake of a task that_**must**_be done, _in spite of _our master's wishes, if necessary."

The dark hedgehog pondered this a bit, sitting gingerly on the still-wet roof. "So you style yourself the Nightmaren Shadow to NiGHTS' Sonic?"

"Again, I would not. And I fear you are misreading NiGHTS badly. My sibling does all things for the amusement of NiGHTS, and benefits of NiGHTS. NiGHTS aids the Dreamers because it annoys me and infuriates our master, and because in so doing the Ideya energy is available; NiGHTS dares not come into Nightmare to feed on our master's energy. Some Dreamers have failed because they did not interest NiGHTS sufficiently, or because NiGHTS' whim at the time was simply not to help them; in one case, the Dreamer was deliberately led to his challenge and abandoned. Your Sonic, I think, has an innately good heart, if an impatient one."

"He's not _my_ Sonic," objected Shadow, "and impatient he certainly is. But you are correct, that he would not abandon someone in need. Including most of his own enemies." He looked distant for moment, then a grin flashed across his face. "He was most indignant over his first encounter with NiGHTS, but every insult he added to the description could be equally applied to himself."

"It is said that we do tend to find our own faults in others. But NiGHTS has other character traits that your friend failed to see. And you and I resemble each other only in color and pragmatism, I think.

"But I did not call you here to discuss the character of anyone. You are aware, I assume of the golden rings of Chaos energy, formed where that energy seeps between planes?"

Now Shadow looked interested. "Do you know that for a fact, or are you basing that on someone else's knowledge? Professor Gerald theorized–"

"It does not matter," Reala said with annoyance. "The problem is that Wi- my master has apparently enlisted the second-level Nightmarens to block these energy seeps, while harvesting the final crop of rings at each site for himself."

Shadow, affronted at being cut off, became instantly thoughtful at Reala's second statement. Hugging his knees to his chest, he rested his chin on them while he considered it. "I was not aware that the seeps could be blocked," he said finally. "Do you know how they're doing it?"

"Not exactly. It involves sacrificing third-levels so that their energy can somehow plug the gaps, but that is all I know. That is what I want you to find out. With this," Reala proffered one of the crimson Nightmare chips, "you should be able to detect dream energy as you already can detect Chaos energy."

Shadow eyed the fist-sized globe warily. "What else does it do? And there are ways to track chaos energy use and users; how many out there will use this as a reason to target me?"

Reala grimaced, turning the chip in his hand. "This chip is not tied or tuned to any specific power source, but I cannot absolutely guarantee that it cannot be . . . hijacked. It may be sensed by any Nightmaren of second-level or higher, but only if they deliberately seek it, and to attune the chip to themselves, they - or even NiGHTS or myself - would have to have physical possession of it. And I have NOT so attuned it myself because that would link it directly to me if you were caught."

"And your master? Can he tune in to the chip without possessing it?"

"Not from a distance, I believe. He cannot 'tune in' to it unless you are careless, and I don't believe he can attune the chip without being very close if not actually in contact with it." Reala was both pleased and displeased by the dokan's caution. It was wasting time, when every second increased the danger of discovery, but the more cautious the hedgehog was, the lower the chance of discovery once they separated.

"How do I contact you, if I find the method of the seeps bring blocked?"

"Look into the chip, focus on me and speak. Any chip that is not pre-tuned to a particular power can be controlled by the holder, so no one else can listen in, including my master. Unless you are far more weak-minded than I believe, and unable to focus properly."

"_Lack_ of focus is not something I am often accused of," agreed the red-striped dokan dryly. He took the red sphere in one hand and somehow slipped it into the red-and-black cuff of his other glove. "I shall see what I can learn."

"Good. I shall continue attempting to discern why the seeps are being blocked; it may be that we can somehow use them against my master."

"More than just recharging the Dreamcaster?"

"That is what I must learn." Reala dismissed the umbrella and rose cautiously, scanning for any sign of Seeing Hands.

Shadow the Hedgehog gave him a hard look, then vanished in a puff of Chaos energy.


	21. Dreams in the Desert

21. Dreams in the Desert

Dr. Ivo Robotnik posed in front of his mirror, scrutinizing his appearance. His moustache was freshly washed and combed to a perfectly matched pair of rhombi, and his bald pate gleamed in the morning sun. "After the rain last night, everything seems fresh and new; a good omen, don't you think?" he said cheerily.

"Given that freshness is often a related to moisture content, one would expect a rain to make things fresh," opined Orbot, "but I do not see how it makes things any newer than they were last night; to the contrary, everything is several hours older than it was last night. And even it they weren't, omens are illogical superstitions."

Robotnik considered dropping out of his 'respectable' persona and thumping his didactic creation, but decided he was in too good a mood. "As opposed to logical superstitions, you mean? You really don't have to take everything I say so literally, you know."

"But when I ask you if you're being literal, you either say that you always are, or swat me _and _say that you always are," countered Orbot. A thump from the door interrupted the robot and made both of them turn toward it. A second thump, like something hitting the floor, followed.

After a moment the door swung open and the black, cuboid robot drifted in on its hoverboard. "Fell off again, did you?" asked the spherical one.

"It's not easy to open a door while riding a hoverboard."

"It is if you stop the hoverboard first."

"Are we ready to go?" interjected the human. Orbot and Cubot would bicker for hours if he let them. It was often amusing, but now was not the time. "The Rogues know the plan; Sonic and his friends have won their places in this race. All we need to do now is head for the desert and wait for race time."

"There's an awful lot of sand in the desert," protested Cubot. "It'll get in my gears - and I'll melt in this black coating."

"You should have thought of that before you asked to be painted black," said Orbot primly.

"Bikers always wear black leather. So I need to, too."

"You're not a biker, you're a hoverboard rider. Only you aren't really; it's just for this scheme."

"But I'll still melt. All the boss'll have left is a puddle of gritty black goo and stuck gears."

"Pick a color, and I'll repaint you on the way," said Robotnik genially. (Geniality was useful; pretend to be Santa Claus and people like you, even when they suspect the truth.) He picked up the last carryall and popped Orbot into it. "Do I look suitably respectable? I don't want anyone thinking the EX Grand Prix isn't on the level."

"You look fine from here. Although I still don't see why we can't just take the Emeralds we have and run."

Robotnik sighed. "Because I still need the key, to get the treasure buried in Babylon Gardens. The legends speak of all sorts of weapons and surveillance systems; exactly the things I need to create Robotnikland." He zipped the case shut and caught the nose of Cubot's board with his free hand, towing it towards the door. "Now let's go."

Dr. Robotnik, head of Robotnik Industries, maker of home and industrial robots as well as military and government mechanicals, as well as hoverboards and similar recreational gadgets, nodded graciously to people as he left the hotel, thanked the doorman for flagging down a taxi, and generously tipped the driver of said taxi when they reached the private airport. Dr. Ivo Robotnik walked suavely up the steps of the Robotnik Inc. Jet sitting in the field and gave directions to the robot pilot to take the plane halfway around the planet for the final race of the Grand Prix. Then Dr. Eggman sat back, rumpled his mustache, and chortled at the proximity of his success. He did enjoy pretending to be a respectable businessman. Removing Orbot from the carryall, he placed the white sphere in a fitted socket on the cabin's desk, then snagged Cubot's hoverboard and shut it down, placing it in the bag. Humming to himself, Eggman waited for the plane to take off, then rummaged in one of the storage lockers for a couple of jars. Pulling out the first, which contained a proprietary 'paint' stripper he glanced over at Cubot. "Did you decide what color you wanted?"

Cubot, now on the desk next to Orbot, hopped his square base from side to side while his companion pointedly ignored him. Neither robot had legs, both closing up and rolling as their primary mode of travel. "Yellow," he decided. "Yellow like the sun and bananas."

"Bananas?" repeated the human and Orbot in chorus. They shared a glance then both looked at Cubot, still dancing on the desktop.

"I like bananas."

Eggman shrugged. "Well, I have a can of yellow." He extracted it from the shelf and set it next to the stripper. "Get over here, then." Cubot stretched over, grabbed the edge of the work table and hitched himself across. Then he collapse down into his namesake cube.

"If you aren't going to need me, boss, I'll shut down for a recharge," said Orbot. The hemispherical socket on the desk provided an energy source as well as a secure seat. He hated rolling accidently, but had refused to let Eggman add even retractable stabilizers to his base. Thus every room he routinely inhabited had at least one such socket in it.

Eggman nodded absently, pulling down his goggles, donning gloves, and flipping a switch that dropped and activated a fume hood. The coating on his robots wasn't actually paint, and the chemicals needed to remove it were neither pleasant nor safe to breathe. Most such work was done by other robots in his various factories, legal or non, but he did a lot a scale-models or smaller robots personally. Quickly he stripped the cuboid robot down to bare metal, paused a moment to fix a damaged hinge pin, then began to paint the yellow coating across the smooth faces of the cube. He did three adjacent faces, then sprayed them liberally with purple fluid from a small squirt bottle and slid the unit under a special lamp. As the fluid turned clear it reacted with the coating, binding it to the metal and itself, creating a finish that repelled water and most solvents except his own formulation of stripper, was scratch-proof, dirt-proof, laser-proof, fingerprint-proof, and insect resistant. (Nothing he'd ever found was bug-gut-_proof_.) In fact the only thing that could really damage it was a certain couple of hedgehogs, who would remain nameless. Once those sides were dry, he repeated the process with the other three, leaving Cubot upside down under the light while he washed his hands and stuck a sandwich into the microwave to warm. _I should probably change Orbot's color as well_, he mused, _since a lot of people have seen both of them recently. Then again, no one can really be so stupid as not to know who I am, surely? We do the little dance, I pay my lawyers well, and GUN grits their teeth and can't come after me because of several legal idiocies that they can't simply ignore. _He ate the sandwich and settled back for a nap.

While Eggman dozed, the plane arrived at Mazastan, a fairly large city on the edge of the desert that had once been ruled by Babylon. A large, ancient amphitheater was set out about 15 miles from the edge of the city, in an area rather unimaginatively called 'Sand Ruins'. The amphitheater itself was not a ruin, having been sporadically maintained and occasionally restored over its lifetime, although care had been taken recently to return it to an 'ancient' feel and appearance. It sat amid a ruined city, much of which had been swallowed by the desert, and some of which Eggman himself (or rather, his robots) had discovered while plotting the race course. The Doctor's planned track started and ended at the amphitheater, but circled around or through a number of nearby structures, some of which he had enhanced with modern machinery - and some of which had their own, ancient enhancements that he had merely repaired. The general area had reminded Eggman fondly of his pyramid base, from which he had taken over the ARK. The ancient technology down below had been a delightful bonus. The plane flew over the city to land beside an apparently ruined building near the amphitheater. Inside, it was anything but ruined; despite its ancient looks it had been built by Eggman less than three months prior.

Eggman snorted slightly, shifting in his chair as the plane landed, but didn't wake up until he heard a loud, slow hiss. He opened one eye, saw a huge snake rearing up to face level, and closed his eye again. Then popped both eyes open when his brain processed what it had just seen and hollered at him. Clutching at the arms of his chair and trying not to breathe too noticeably, he stared at the creature before him. The serpent, marked along its spine with bright triangles of red and yellow along a black central stripe had its back to him, the head held nearly six feet off the ground as it surveyed the cabin. What little the man could see of the snake's head had a strange, pale color to it, and looked more like bare skin than scales. A faint wheeze from behind Eggman made him wonder if there were additional snakes before he recognized it as the sound of either Orbot or Cubot opening up. _Oh no. No, please be quiet, don't say– _

"BOSS! There's a snake on the plane! A huge snake!" Eggman flinched in spite of himself; he hadn't realized the little robots could achieve such volume. He'd have to fix that if he survived the - what_ was _that thing?

The brilliantly colored serpent had whipped around at the robot's bellow, unfurling a hood - no, not a hood, a . . . a . . . a moustache? Eggman blinked, blinked again and wished very much he dared rub his eyes, because he was being confronted by a serpent wearing his own head, bald pate, dark glasses, red moustache and all. The forked tongue was not his though, he was pretty certain of that. The head shifted slightly, suggesting the obscured eyes were looking over the Doctor's head at the robot. The lower jaw dropped open and a pair of steely fangs hinged down from the upper jaw. With a sudden dart of its head, the serpent sprayed a black fluid over Eggman's head. The robot's case could be heard closing with a snap; the Doctor didn't know if it had been hit or not. The serpent turned its head slightly left, then right, like a lizard evaluating the distance to a possible meal. It sank down, below Eggman's range of vision (reclining as he was, his own stomach and legs prevented him from seeing the floor, and he didn't want to risk provoking the thing by moving) and he heard it slithering around the cabin of the aircraft. Somewhere to his left, it went silent, leaving his half-strangled breathing the only sound in the cabin.

The silence was even more alarming than the slither. Eggman rolled his eyes as far left as he could, then slowly - very slowly - turned his head. As he had feared, the serpent was sitting up next to him, silent as the grave (he really wished he hadn't thought that), staring through its spectacles at him. He froze again as soon as he had it in sight and for an unbearable eternity, it seemed, neither moved. Suddenly the serpent's moustache curled up on both sides, the tendrils bending like tiny fingers, and raised the dark glasses to the top of its head. Instead of Eggman's pale blue eyes looking out of the replica face, each socket held a tiny, metallic head. Two pairs of Metal Sonic's eyes glowed out from behind the serpent's eyelids.

Enough was enough. Eggman yanked hard on the arms of his chair, propelling his rotund body up and forward as fast as he could, and bolted for the open door. He nearly fell down the steps but that hardly mattered, he wanted to get out of range . . . of . . . the . . . oh, dear. A four-foot-high wall marked with red and yellow triangles beneath a black band surrounded the plane like a circus ring. Standing on the wall, which was rather cylindrical in appearance -_ do NOT look behind, I do NOT want to see the giant serpent leering down over the top of the jet _- was a rotund humanoid figure, a clear caricature of the Doctor himself, beaming like a madman. The suit it wore was one he had worn early in his 'career', before deciding that it looked too clown-like to be taken seriously. Again, the eyes were concealed behind dark glasses.

Up to his ankles in sand, the Doctor placed a hand on the stair rail to steady himself. He knew what was going on; he'd read about the 'waking nightmares' that some people had been having, and scoffed along with the newscasters at what some people would believe. He took faint hope from the fact that no one had died from these things yet, although there did seem to be a faint sapping of his energy going on - or perhaps that was from standing bare-headed in the desert sun. Squaring himself up, he addressed his cartoonish doppelgänger. "What do you want?"

The question returned, not quite an echo, "What do _you_ want?" A shift in inflection, slight but noticeable.

"I want to know what you want. Why are you bothering me?" Eggman stayed cautious, kept his tone of voice polite. For once he was truly uncertain about what to do. In the past he had made wrong choices, but he rarely had problems making the decision itself. He heard a faint slithery noise above him and steeled himself not to move as the Eggman-headed serpent eeled out of the plane and down the steps. Without looking at him, it trekked like a sidewinder across the hot sands and then wove up the 'wall' - which was quite impossible - and settled in a coil beside the caricature.

"You seek after power." The bass voice didn't come from the creatures in front of him, but seemed to rumble from the ground and air. The railing he still grasped vibrated in sympathy. _I don't believe it, _declared a tiny portion of Eggman's mind. _I bet it's the giant snake thing, serving as a speaker somehow._ It was still impressive. "All power is **mine.**"

"And you are? I don't believe we've been introduced." A bit more polite, but not conciliatory. Eggman wasn't about to give up his own goals on the say-so of an unseen unknown. His free hand rose to fiddle with one of his coat brasses in nervous fashion

A quartet of giant, disembodied hands suddenly appeared, one taking station above the faux Eggman while the others spaced equally around the ring. Horizontal lines across the palms opened to reveal eyes: green in front, brown to the left, an inhuman gold to the right, all slit-pupilled in the desert sun. (Eggman didn't turn to look at the one behind him, but he could feel its gaze like an icicle dripping on the back of his neck.) "**I am Wizeman, ruler of all Nightmare, conqueror of Nightopia and this world.**"

"Really?" The human raised his eyebrows high above his dark glasses. "I wasn't aware that we'd been conquered. And I do pride myself on being the sort of person to notice things like that. You'd best beware of the Hedgehogs."

The eyes blinked closed, then opened again, but this time instead of eyes behind the lids, there were tunnel mouths colored spheres rolled out of them, resolving into spiky balls as they hit the sand, and uncurling into three - six - nine - _dozens_ of dokan hedgehogs. Most were as improbably colored as Sonic himself, although some were dark like Shadow with various brilliant accent colors. The uncurled hedgehogs stepped or skated towards Doctor Eggman with slow menace. "You'd best beware of the hedgehogs," echoed the clown in front of him.

_No, _said Eggman's mind,_ these are not real. Relatively few dokan can curl like Sonic can, and these are __**all **__Sonic or Shadow; the faces are all the same, only the colors vary. This Wizeman is reading my thoughts or something; I offered him a crack and he crept in. _He clenched his hand tightly around his coat brass. Simultaneously, the sharp edges sliced into his palm, and an electric pulse dilated from the tiny unit. As it washed across the creatures and figures surrounding him they faded like mirages into the desert sunlight.

Clutching his bleeding palm, Eggman looked around. "Cubot, Orbot, are you there? Answer me!" The initial fiddling with his brass should have sent them a warning to close up; their shells could protect them from the pulse. The pilot and the plane's computer would have to be reinitialized later by hand. "Cubot!"

"Here, boss. What _were_ those things?"

"I'm not certain. I thought they were dreams, but you could see them, couldn't you?" One of them had certainly seen the snake, he remembered. "Pull out the first-aid kit. I've cut my hand." He started up the steps, wondering if it was the pulse or the pain that had dismissed the strange things, or both together?


	22. Plots Discovered, Plots Made

22. Plots Discovered, Plots Made

Jet the Hawk paced back and forth in his cabin aboard the Babylon airship. He'd dispatched Storm to raid the base of that Doctor Eggman as punishment for losing his heat of the race, but the grey hulk hadn't returned yet and Wave was certain that something had gone wrong. Jet maintained that Storm might have gotten lost (again), but couldn't possibly have been caught by the human or his robots. The albatross was, admittedly, massive in inverse proportion to his brain-power, but he was still an accomplished thief or he'd not have been a Babylon Rogue. He was definitely overdue, though. "He probably went to the wrong place," muttered the hawk. "Probably searching egg-cartons in the dairy section of a grocery store." He turned so sharply that his tail feathers scraped across the wooden wall.

"Then again, I did tell him to bring something back - or not return at all." Hearing footsteps in the hall, he jumped into his chair and snatched up some papers. It wasn't Storm's heavy pounding, and Jet didn't want Wave knowing he was wor– wondering. The swallow rapped once, businesslike, then called through the door, "We're here Jet. The Sand Ruin Coliseum is right below us."

The hawk hastily cleared his throat and called back. "Move us off to wherever the parking is and land. Are the boards ready?"

"Ours are, of course. Storm's got his with him, but as long as he shows up by tomorrow morning, we're set. The race isn't until 2:30 in the afternoon." He heard her moving away again and got back out of his chair. This time he moved to stare moodily out the window - not one of the traditional round 'port-holes', of which the cabin had two, but the six-foot-wide picture window across the stern. He spotted Eggman's plane near a building he didn't remember, and wondered if the human had any idea how well the Rogues knew this area. Somewhere around here was where the fabled Babylon Island had crashed. Babylon Rogues down through his father's era and other descendants of the Island's original inhabitants had combed and recombed these sands, searching for the legendary treasure, or simply some clue as to the whereabouts of the fallen isle. Most of the ruins were of a different civilization, sometimes called the fifth - or was it fourth? Sixth? Did it matter? - that had been rival and prey for the original Rogues. Sometimes trading partners; sometimes enemies. At any rate, the technology down there was seriously advanced, if the ruins of it were any indication. But technology was Wave's sideline. It could be useful sometimes, like the hoverboards, but the real money was in treasure - and these ruins were long since picked clean. The airship moved on, circled over the crowd already gathering around a sort of carnival set up near the parking lot, then over the lot itself, only half filled today. Slightly beyond that, the ship began to sink, gliding over a ring of security robots and settling into place in the competitor's section. Jet had to smirk at the robots; he'd evaded plenty of them in the past. Guard robos simply weren't a match for a clever thief. Of course, most thieves weren't as clever as the Rogues, and Jet was definitely proud of that. Even without Wave, they'd been successful, although (he generously conceded) her technological tricks had made the group even more profitable. If only she didn't nag so! The ship landed with the faintest of bumps, and he left the cabin, eager to stretch his legs and explore a bit. And if a few valuables happened to migrate from the spectators' pockets into his? Well, they should be honored to have encountered such a famous person.

The next noon, Jet and Wave were standing in the shade of a ruin after the track walkthrough and some practice runs, when they heard Storm calling to them. "Boss! Wave! Boss! Sorry to keep you waiting for me!" He pulled up too sharply and did a belly flop into the sand.

"How'd it go?" asked Jet, as the albatross shoved himself back up, spitting sand.

"Take a look at this, boss!" A tiny chip rested in the massive palm shoved toward the hawk.

Wave snatched it up, "Gimme!" She popped it into a reader and began mashing buttons. A holographic screen appeared with data spewing across it at high speed.

"What is it?" prodded Jet, after several minutes of listening to the swallow mumbling to herself.

She flashed him a triumphant look. "It's an entry in Eggman's diary. It's about the Babylon treasure from our ancient ancestors." She tapped a few more buttons and handed the unit to Jet.

"Hmm." He perused the first few lines of text; what sort of person _wrote down _his laughter? Annoyed by the other two leaning over him, he began to read aloud. "Hahahaha! I got those birdbrains to believe that the Babylon treasure was just a gem. I can't believe they fell for it! What fools!

"Can you believe the REAL treasure is the ancient, but advanced technology of the Babylonians? What irony! I've found a story about a boy who received an Angel Wing from the Babylonians as a gift. The story says that with it, the boy was able to rule the world. And this was just a gift! I'm anxious to find this technology as soon as possible. Imagine the vast possibilities of the technology they must have kept for themselves. Hehehehehe!" He blinked at the screen as the meaning of the words sunk in.

Storm beat him to it. "Aw, man, I guess it's not a gem after all . . . ."

"Hmm," Jet agreed. He scanned a bit further reading the Doctor's speculations on the presumed technology and planned use thereof, then picked up his board. "Oh well, I guess this was just a wasted effort. Too bad really; I haven't the slightest interest in world domination or advanced technology." At least he'd get the chance to beat that hedgehog; he'd wait to break with the human until _after_ he'd rematched Sonic the Supposedly Speedy. But right now it was time for a cool drink and a cool bath prior to the race.

"Hey, wait a second, okay Jet?" Wave sounded both subdued and oddly worried. Puzzled, he looked back at her. "While Eggman may not look smart, he is; he has an IQ of 300 after all," she said diffidently. "If he's interested in this technology it must have value."

Jet was pleased by both her altered demeanor (although she was probably doing it on purpose to manipulate him) and what she was saying. "Are you saying there's profit in this?" Perhaps he'd better not break with Eggman as soon as the race ended after all.

"Think about it; it may be more valuable than finding gold or silver!"

She had a point, he reflected, thinking of some of the prices on technological goodies he'd seen or stolen. Not to mention the prices for rare archaeological artifacts - ancient technology must be doubly valuable, certainly? "Ah . . . ." His mind filled with the piles of gold and silver the Rogues might net by selling it to the highest bidder. He could hear the soft clinking as more coins rained around him, savor the taste of the precious metals in the air; dimly seen beings poured more coins and the odd emerald or diamond out of bottomless sacks overhead. He scooped up handfuls of coins and delighted in the cool metal as they spilled between his fingers.

His daydream was shattered by a shrill alarm beep. He glared at Wave; she'd pulled that trick before. He had the odd impression that something had slipped behind a ruined pillar, but dismissed it. No one was around but his fellow Rogues. "Why'd you do that? I was just having this great daydream."

She silenced the alarm. "Come on Jet, it's time to go back to the race."

"Alright, let's finish this; then we'll finally get the treasure of Babylon!" _Even if we have to sell it to get its worth._ The three Rogues headed for the Coliseum, where waves of noise could already be heard as the crowds settled into their seats and vendors hawked and sold their wares. A snickering Nightmaren peered over the top of a nearby wall, then drifted in the opposite direction, clinking metallically.

Storm bulled his way through the crowds to the contestant entry with Jet and Wave pressing close in his wake. The security bots allowed them through the barricades and into the coliseum. The noises of the crowd echoed deafeningly along the tunnel leading to the central arena. Omochao's voice, accented by the occasional loudspeaker squeal, added to the din. "Now, our race has reached its final stage. The remaining competitors are pacing, anxious for the race to begin. Only a few minutes left. Who will win this big event?" The three birds stepped into blindingly bright sunlight, buffeted by the almost physical waves of sound and showered with bits and streamers of confetti.

_I could get to enjoy this sort of life_, thought Jet, as he raised a hand over his head and was rewarded by a chorus of shrieks and shouts._ Fair amount of profit in stardom too, as I understand it. _He flicked his fingers through his crest (eliciting another round of squeals) and spotted the other three competitors. The pink hedgehog that had helped the little fox come in second was there as well. "Sonic! Congratulations! I'll be over here, cheering you on!" she cried and slipped away as the Rogues walked over. The blue hedgehog gave a rather distracted nod and led his team up the steps to where Doctor Eggman himself waited, pretending to be an honest merchant. (Or whatever. Jet didn't really care what the conniving human pretended to be, as long as Jet got what _he_ wanted at the end of all this.) The Doctor's beaming face also loomed over the coliseum, projected on a massive monitor for all to see.

"And now, it's time for the final event!" he bellowed into his microphone. "And it's set here... in Sand Ruins! The rules are still the same; anything goes in this extreme race! Although it needs no further explanation, the first one to reach the goal will win this race!" Jet rolled his eyes. But then, some people were incredibly stupid, a fact the Rogues made good use of in their plans. Maybe some of the watchers didn't know that the way to win a race was to come in first. The screen cut to a closeup of the prize table: five Chaos Emeralds gleaming on a cloth, each balanced neatly on its point. The inherent glow of the gems was invisible under the brilliant desert sun. Wave plucked at Jet's arm, shouting something about the moon, but he couldn't really hear her over the crowd and ignored her. "But remember," Eggman called, "the prize will be won by the racer who's performed the best throughout this competition! _Ah, that's it: the winner of this race won't necessarily win the prize. Wait. Everyone here's got at least a first or second - so if a second-place wins and a first place is second– _Jet shoved the thought out of mind. He intended to win the race and have the prize, and that was all that mattered. The jack-in-the-ball robot was signaling him urgently from off camera. Wave gave him a discreet shove and he realized that Sonic had pulled out his Chaos Emerald and stepped to the table. Hastily Jet did the same.

"Hah, you're lucky you got this far," sneered Jet. "It obviously wasn't due to your 'skills'." Actually the hedgehog had done better than expected, but if he could rattle his opponent before the race started, all the better.

But the other didn't seem perturbed. "Heh, I won't lose now," countered the hedgehog. The two placed their respective gems on the table in unison. Jet fancied he could feel power surge around them like wind currents ahead of a storm.

"Hohoho!" crowed the Doctor, "Get ready; it's time for the final race to begin!" The six final contestants took their places at the starting line, three and three. Jet darted a glance at Wave and saw her confirmatory nod. The plan was set. He didn't expect to have any trouble winning, but he always liked to have a backup plan in place. He powered up his board and spun it on its tail, then let it drop into a horizontal position. That wasn't mere showing off; Wave had modified all three boards after Sonic the groundhog's initial interference, so that the boards would shut themselves off if not handled 'correctly'. No more busybodies chasing the Babylon Rogues on their own boards - the board would simply go dead. Jet had wanted her to make them explode, but Wave pointed out that Storm would probably forget several times - which he had thrice already - and besides, the police were far more aggressive in chasing murderers than thieves. Even as he thought that, she was having to remind the albatross to thump his own board on the ground twice. 'Knocking the dust out' he called it, and Wave had suppressed her own irritation at the long-term habit (which tended to damage the air thrusters, and cause her to have to replace them) in hopes that it could be an activation 'code' he could remember. I hadn't worked. On the other side of Jet, the blue hedgehog was resting one foot on his board, idly rocking it backwards and forwards. Beyond him the echidna stood stolid as a mountain, while the fox cub looked both terrified and determined.

"On your marks!" roared the Doctor, and the crowd roared back. The starting light clicked on, a green beam stretched across the track. Jet grinned and leaned forward, forgetting the other competitors. The race was about how much speed he could coax from his board, through balance and forethought and skill. He was neither gryphon nor griff, to have wings to fly with, but he had the instincts and knew how to manipulate the least air current to gain speed or height for his board. There! The light was beginning its sweep . . . back . . . back . . . now! The green dokan started his run, predator's gaze tightly focused on the moving light. His far-distant ancestors had been able to dive on a running rabbit from incredible heights, and he'd honed that instinctive sense of timing to a nearly infallible precision. The ancient strike was a leap, his talons digging into the soles of his boots as he landed on the board, rocketing across the start in unison with the timing beam, so close to early that the penalty jolt crackled static through his feathers as it shut off. Involuntarily he shrieked a hunting cry, only dimly aware of the other racers echoing his challenge. This was life!

The boards raced out of the coliseum across the sun-heated sands, Jet leading, Storm trailing, the rest in a cluster between the two. No one was striking at opponents yet; everyone more interested in gauging the track and learning what challenges and dangers it would throw at them. The first such revealed themselves now: ancient pylons linked to not-so-ancient machinery that detected the approaching boards and thrust the pillars skywards like stone spears. Jet heard the rumbling below ground and was dodging before the tip broke the sand - left, right, left, he wove between the rising ruins. A ramp ahead, leading over a gorge and aimed at a narrow ledge, where the sand cascaded down into the pit below. Jet spun his board six, seven times in midair, somersaulting to a landing 'upstream' of the sandfall, pushing the gear on across the current. He lost some speed to the necessity of keeping the nose of the board tipped against the sliding sand, but vaulted to the grind rail where he could quickly recover it. There were shouts behind him, but he didn't look back. Looking back was a fatal error, and not one the Wind Rider would ever make.


End file.
